Two tiger cubs born at Australian tiger conservation program

Two super cute balls of fluff born in late November have extended the Australian tiger conservation's winning streak following the birth in July of the nation's first tiger cub in seven years.

Australia houses one of the world's largest tiger-based zoological conservation programs at the Dreamworld amusement park on Queensland state's Gold Coast in an effort to protect the 3,000 remaining wild tigers that are classified as critically endangered.

The yet to be named cubs that weighed 1.28 and 1.12 kilograms at birth on Nov. 29 are the second litter for their nine-year-old mother Nika who was transferred to Dreamworld's Tiger Island for breeding purposes in 2012.

"We are very lucky she has found a suitable mate in Raja (11-years) and has produced two sets of cubs," Dreamworld general manager for life sciences Al Mucci said in a statement on Wednesday when the births were announced.

Hailed as a win for tiger conservation, Nika and Raja's first son Kai was born a rare only child in late July, the first for Dreamworld in seven years.

Tiger Island manager Patrick Martin-Vegue said with tigers being highly social animals, it has been tough for young Kai not to grow up with other cubs.

"I think he was the only single litter we'd seen in about 35 years," Martin-Vegue said.

The two cubs are being hand-reared until they're introduced to the main tiger population at Tiger Island at the age of six weeks, where the money raised from the exhibit is then used to fund global tiger conservation projects, particularly in Russia and Indonesia's Sumatra. Endit