Elderly tigress recovering after tumor surgery

Hong Hong, a 25-year-old Siberian tiger at Wuhan Zoo, is recovering well from a surgery that removed a rapidly growing tumor in her belly, Changjiang News reported.

The tigress, recognized as "meritorious" for giving birth to 11 cubs in 18 years, was found to have a tumor in March. Three months of observation at the zoo in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, revealed it was growing quickly.

The tumor, which weighed 750 grams, was removed on July 10 in a surgical operation that lasted an hour.

The zoo said difficulties faced by the surgical team included anesthetizing the 130-kilogram tiger and stopping the bleeding, which was important because there was no tiger blood that could be used for a transfusion.

Hong Hong's age is the equivalent of between 70 and 80 for a person, and the report said it was the first surgery carried out in China on such an elderly tiger.

She was only 6 when she arrived in Wuhan from the Czech Republic in 2000.