A black labrador retriever has assumed the role of mum to three liger cubs who were abandoned by their parents after being born in a zoo in Russia.
The triplets, who are the offspring of a lion and a tiger, had been rejected shortly after their birth at Sochi Zoo.
The triplets had been rejected by their own mother shortly after she gave birth to them in the Oktyabrsky sanatorium at the zoo of Sochi
After some training, she accepted the ligers as her own and has started nursing and cleaning the cubs in place of their own biological parents, a tigress called Marusya and a lion called Simba.
Captured on camera, the liger cubs, who are now ten days old, can be seen feeding before they are then seen looking rather sleepy-eyed on a bed.
They exist only in captivity and are often genetically or physically sterile and therefore unable to reproduce and continue their lineage.
Grona the Labrador was brought in by zookeepers, who hoped that the dog would take on the role of surrogate mother
After some training, Grona accepted the ligers as her own and has started nursing and cleaning the cubs
The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a tigress, and the animal exists only in captivity