“In a zoo in California , a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth.
The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother’s cub’s, perhaps she would improve.
After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species, will take on the care of a different species. The only ‘orphans’ that could be found quickly, were a litter of weanling pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops??
Take a look… ”
上述文字和本文图片转自一个美国朋友的邮件。
以我粗浅的英文水平也大致看懂了，大意如下：
在加州的一个动物园里，一只母老虎生了一窝虎宝宝；但是很不幸，虎宝宝很快都夭折了。虎妈妈非常悲痛，无法承受丧子之痛，健康每况益下；而实际上它本身身体机能没有问题。兽医认为如果能给这个虎妈妈找个虎宝宝来哺育一下，应该可以恢复健康。
可是合适的虎宝宝不是那么好找，反正找了好多动物园都没有。后来有人就想了个办法，给一窝刚断奶的猪宝宝裹上虎皮，送给虎妈妈；看看行不行？
其实大家心里都有点嘀咕，为这些猪宝宝的命运担心，不知道会不会成为虎妈妈的晚餐——几份美味猪排呢？
结果呢？
我们看到了如下温馨的场景:
神奇的是虎妈妈不但不把小猪们当作美味，而且当作自己的宝宝一样来呵护和抚养。看着这些图片和身边躺着的卡卡，我能充分感受到虎妈妈深深的舔犊之情。虎妈妈绝对不傻，不会真的以为披了虎皮，就以为小猪变小虎了；闻闻气味就知道了。
只是当幼小的身躯在身边拱来拱去，稚嫩的声音在耳边响起；虎妈妈积郁许久的母爱终于有了发挥之处。一般当妈妈的都会对其他宝宝、其他小动物分外爱怜。这是我自己当了妈妈后，感同身受的。
天底下最伟大的爱大概也只有母爱，能超越一切，包括物种的差异。
（吸血鬼和人的恋爱也不是不可能，哈）
这只虎妈妈在不幸的同时无疑又是幸福的,人们不但关心它的身体疾病，还想方设法治愈它的心理创伤。我想起杭州动物园的老虎们为了一口食物还在钻火圈。
不过最近很欣喜看到一则新闻，说中国已禁止动物园作动物表演。