Monday, October 13, 2008

Brother Tiger

How much of an animal's behavior is from nature? How much is from nurture? Can nurture change an animal's nature? Can early life experience have an influence on an adult animal?
You might think that for a hungry tiger, a piglet would naturally be lunch. However, for Saimai, a two years old Bengal tiger, piglets are not lunch. According to "Best Friends Magazine", Saimai plays with them as if they were his brothers. That is because when he was a cub, Saimai grew up with piglets. He thought that their mother was his mother. She suckled him while she was suckling her real babies.
Will this behavior continue or will Saimai suddenly return to his instinctive nature? Nobody knows the answer, but maybe those piglets shouldn't get too close to their "brother tiger", just in case.

Photobucket

p.s. RAWR!!!

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