Golden retriever was a surrogate mother to tigers - video of the special family

The golden retriever has been raising the little ones since they were puppies, and now they’ve grown so big that they could be the dog's parents.

Nature can indeed work wonders. One of the most amazing and touching phenomena is when mother dogs take it upon themselves to raise wild animal cubs, such as feral cats. Although this may seem surprising at first glance, experience and studies show that this behavior is not uncommon. There have been numerous instances where female dogs of various breeds have cared for wild cats as if they were their own pups. A golden retriever's exceptional ability as a surrogate mother highlights this interesting behavior. Females of the breed are renowned for their intelligence, balanced temperament, and excellent parental instincts. These qualities make them particularly suitable for taking in the young of other species.

This was the case in a Chinese zoo, where tiger cubs were abandoned by their mother and needed a surrogate to survive. A golden retriever eagerly took on the task and raised the tiger cubs with devoted care. Remarkably, the story didn’t end when the cubs transitioned from milk to meat; the now-adult tigers still consider the dog their mother, even if their size makes it seem like the dog is their cub.