Sumatran Tiger Birth Caught on Hidden Camera at London Zoo

Melati, the female Sumatran tiger, gave birth to a single cub at 9:22pm, Sunday 22 September at the London Zoo. A hidden camera in the tiger enclosure helped zookeepers catch the exact moment of birth.

"We are simply over-the-moon about the birth of the tiger cub; it's a momentous occasion for everyone at ZSL London Zoo and a real cause for celebration. We were nervous about the pregnancy, as it was Melati's first cub and we didn't know how she'd react. When it came to her due date, we were all watching our monitors with bated breath," Paul Kybett, one of the zookeepers said in a news release by the Zoological Society of London.

The new cub is the direct descendant of the Zoo's last cub - Hari. Zookeepers said that the birth was very quick- about six minutes.

 "The actual birth happened very quickly and Melati's maternal instincts kicked in immediately, as she started licking the cub all over and it soon began wriggling around - we couldn't have asked for a smoother birth!," Kybett added. "It's still very early days, so we're leaving Melati alone to take care of her adorable baby, and our cameras allow us to watch them both from a distance - so far she's proving to be a doting mum."

The zoo hasn't revealed the sex of the cub yet. Melati and her little bundle of joy are expected to stay off public gaze for a few more weeks.

Sumatran tigers have heavy black stripes on orange coats and are an extremely elusive subspecies of tigers. Fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers live in the forests of Indonesia. The WWF says that deforestation and poaching is pushing the rare tiger towards extinction, just like its already-extinct cousins, the Javan and Balinese tigers.

See Melati and her cub here.