If you happen to visit the Delhi zoo anytime soon then you can witness a newly married couple. This is a tiger couple, that too a mix and match pair. A royal Bengal tiger named Karan and white tigress named Nirbhaya are apparently 'husband and wife.' The two tigers have been moved in the same enclosure to facilitate mating between them. This hasn't been totally out of context or a forced union, but the zoo officials claim that they did notice a certain 'chemistry' between the two tigers.

May-June is supposed to be a mating season for the big cats. Such a thing of facilitating mating between a striped and a white tiger is being done after 27 years! The last time such a thing was done was in 1991, when the union gave two cubs- one who was white and the other one was yellow. Now all eyes are on this new couple who had already mated since they are moved in together. “They were introduced to each other two days ago, in a private enclosure… we wanted to see if they have chemistry, will they fight or not. They sniffed each other and seem to get along. Yesterday, we got them married,” said Renu Singh, director of the Delhi Zoo to Indian Express.

Yellow-striped Karan is five-years-old was brought in from Mysore zoo. While Nirbhaya the white-tigress is three-year-old. The zookeepers are observing them thoroughly and even keeping a tab on how many times they mate. The idea is to introduce better genes and better offspring between the two. Sanjay Kumar, DIG, National Tiger Conservation Authority, said, “There is no guarantee that the offspring will be white only. They could be mixed or yellow or white. There is no natural selection inside zoos, so these things have to be facilitated. We will have to wait and watch.” Visitors of the zoo were delighted to see the two tigers in one enclosure. They were seen whistling at the tigers and taking pictures of the two. If there are cubs born out of the union, then it will only attract more people to the zoo during the monsoons. But the authorities are keeping a vigil on the two and ensure that they get the privacy even if they are being watched.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 09, 2018 10:37 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).