Authentic tigers

PROMISCUOUSLY cohabiting gene pools
were on the verge of ensuring that
tigers would never be the same
again; what saved the day was the
Central Zoo Authority's (CZA) new
scientific action plan for breeding
them in captivity. From now on, DNA
mappings will be used to trace
the genetic details of tigers for effective breeding. At a meeting in Orissa's
Nandan Kanan ZOO, CZA members deck
cled to discontinue old methods.

Nine zoos - at Mysore, Hyderabad,
Madras, Patna, Guwahati, Nandan
Kanan and Chandigarh - have been
selected for the plan. Tigers from various forests are to be incarcerated in,
these zoos and led through a DNA-mapped breeding programme. A bit
of judicious spouse-swapping, and
the skewed sex ratio could return to
equilibrium.

The new strategy includes building
a feline semen bank and, curiously,
training tigers about how to comport
themselves in the wild.