An Indochinese tigress has given birth to five cubs at a zoo in Vietnam, a rarity in twenty years at the zoological garden.

The mother tiger, 10 years old, produced her offspring at Saigon Zoo in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City almost one month ago following a 104-day pregnancy.

She had been interbred with a 7-year-old tiger from a zoo in Hanoi after efforts to mate her with tigers coming from other Southeast Asian countries failed to yield any result.

This is a rare phenomenon as a tigress normally gives birth to only two to four cubs, according to Phan Viet Lam, director of Saigon Zoo.

Zookeepers have separated the two weakest cubs from the tigress for safety reasons as the mother tends to only keep the strongest babies.

All the five young animals are now in good health and weigh from two to four kilograms each.

Another Indochinese tigress is pregnant and ready for a delivery at the zoo.

The Indochinese tiger is a tiger subspecies dispersed throughout the Indochina region of Southeast Asia.

It is categorized as endangered by The International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.