BANDUNG, Indonesia, March 27, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Two Bengal tiger cubs born in 
Indonesia's Bandung Zoo last year have died from a viral infection, a 
conservation official told AFP on Friday.

The cubs, two males named Huru and Hara, were born last July to tigress 
Jelita, who remains in good health.

According to the conservation agency of West Java province, the cubs were 
infected at birth with the Feline Panleukopenia virus (FPV), which can sicken 
wild and domestic cats and is particularly dangerous for young animals.

Hara died on the 24th, two days after falling ill, and despite veterinary 
efforts to save him, Huru followed two days later, agency spokesman Eri 
Mildrayana told AFP.

The cubs had suffered from diarrhoea, vomiting and lethargy in the days 
before they died.

Bandung mayor Muhammad Farhan, in a social media post Thursday, said the news 
had left him "very sad."

"This is an important lesson for us. The step that we can take right now is 
to improve biosecurity," he wrote on Instagram.

The US National Institutes of Health says FPV is also referred to as "cat 
plague" or "feline distemper" and usually occurs in unvaccinated or 
improperly vaccinated captive felines.

The Bandung Zoo in West Java has been closed for months due to what officials 
have described as internal management problems.

In 2017, activists demanded the zoo's closure after skeletal sun bears were 
pictured begging for food from visitors and eating their own dung.

AFP was unable to reach Bandung city authorities in charge of running the 
zoo.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Bengal 
tiger is an endangered species, with fewer than 4,000 still in the wild -- 
mostly in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan.