A tiger’s roar is enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine even if it means listening to it on the television. But, have you ever heard a tiger sing? Here is the story of a ‘musical’ tiger in Siberia whose cries seem to be a melody and have hence gained him overnight stardom.
Vitas is an 8-month-old Siberian tiger cub who resides in the Russian zoo. Though he is going to grow into one of the biggest and fiercest animals in the world, for now, he is enjoying his adolescence in plotting ways to attract his mother’s attention.
For this, the royal tiger cub who is also extremely cute has taken the route of making high-pitched sounds, which are completely opposite to that of any other tiger. Big cats’ larynx aren’t designed to produce such cries and hence, made Vitas and his feat a viral entity.
WATCH: Meet the young tiger who makes soft melodic sounds at a Russian zoo pic.twitter.com/xqVBROlggC
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 27, 2021
While many users who watched the video expressed their concern over the cries, the zoo authorities have stated that he isn’t in any pain as these are his plaintive falsetto calls to bring his mother, Bagheera, to him.
This melodious singer is an Amur tiger cub and lives in Siberia’s Barnaul Zoo with his mother and siblings. As Bagheera gave birth to many offspring, vitas found a way to call her to give him attention when she is busy attending to her other kids.
According to a report on DailyMail, Vista’s cries are a result of the male child’s desire to be noticed by his mother.
“From birth, he attracted the attention of his mother who had many offspring. He deliberately left for a far corner when she was busy with the others, and yelled until she dropped everything and came to him,” the zoo officials said.
The video proves that his act brought him victory while also fetching him an army of fans. In the same, a woman is also heard calling the cub, “Vitas, Vitas, sing us a song.”
Vitas, the cub, is rumoured to be named after the popular Russian singer Vitaly Grachev.
Though they are the largest tigers in the world, the Amur species is greatly endangered in the wild, thanks to the hunting acts of humans. Eastern Russia, near the Chinese border, houses almost 600 such tigers who live in their natural habitat.
Post the collapse of the USSR, their number got down further and almost became extinct as poaching increased during this time.
