Trio of rare tiger cubs spotted in Thai national park

A national park in Thailand has not one but three reasons to celebrate after confirming a rare Bengal tiger is raising a trio of cubs in the protected area.

Park rangers first spotted a single cub with its mother on a camera trap last year in Kaeng Krachan National Park, around 130 kilometres (80 miles) southwest of Bangkok.

But further footage, retrieved only this week from cameras damaged by heavy rain last year, confirmed that the litter is three-strong.

"This is the first time we have recorded a tiger raising three cubs in the national park," Kaeng Krachan National Park chief Mongkol Chaipakdee said in a statement sent to AFP on Friday.

"We were only able to recover the footage this week because our camera was damaged due to rain last year."

The camera trap footage shows the three cubs scampering in leaf litter while their mother prowls around.

The video of the feline family captured in July was published by the national park on its Facebook page on Wednesday.

"Based on the timeline, we estimate the cubs are now about six months old," Mongkol said.

Six adult Bengal tigers currently live in Kaeng Krachan National Park -- a UNESCO World Heritage site spread over densely forested mountains along the border with Myanmar -- two males, two females and two whose sex is unknown.

Bengal tiger sightings are rare.

However, park officials spotted another Bengal tiger in Kui Buri National park, south of the capital Bangkok, earlier this year.

It was the first sighting of the animal in that park in more than a decade, according to Thai authorities.

Thailand has one of the few remaining breeding populations of Bengal tigers, which roam just a handful of countries, including India, Nepal, Russia and Bhutan.

Bengal tigers are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) red list of threatened species due to hunting and wildlife trafficking.

Today, only around 4,500 are estimated to remain, according to the IUCN.

Conservation successes have increased the Bengal tiger populations in India and Nepal in recent years.

© Agence France-Presse