For those of you who do not know Zara was born on the 13th May 2008 to Zuri and Safi at Linton Zoo. Unfortunately Zuri and Safi were not experienced enough to know what to do with Zara, and she had to be hand-reared. After a few weeks however she was taken to Paradise Wildlife Park and in part with a project between the zoos and the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre, she was destined for a life more like that of her wild ancestors.
Zara being the first cub born to this pair, was the begining of a new generation, 2nd generation Linton Lion of the newer clade! - The last of Linton Zoos original lions 'Lily' died in 2002, she was born to lions Lucy and Jaspa, and Jaspa was born at Linton Zoo to the original pair Dusty and Tanya. However Linton Zoo sent their cubs all over the World including Woburn Safari Park. This was where Riziki and Karla were born so the chances of them being descended from Dusty is rather high.
Anyway! So when I visited Linton Zoo in 2008, I was incredibly surprised, and very pleasantly so! To meet a five day old Zara. And wasn't she beautiful?!
Over the last forty years Zoo Director Kim Simmons has had her fair share of lion cubs to hand rear so Zara was in very good hands, however due to lack of space she had to go to Paradise Wildlife Park before her future in Africa.
I was very lucky to meet her again before she left to go to Broxbourne, and the photos below are from that visit. Considering this was only a couple of weeks after, and in these photos she is about 3 weeks old she had grown a considerable amount when you compare them to the ones above!
As you can see like any lion cub, she really was a cheeky girl and there are more photos from this visit on this post.
When Zara moved to Paradise Wildlife Park she created quite a stir in the media, as anyone knows lion cubs always seem to provoke a bit of outside interest! Whilst at Linton Zoo before her move she made an appearance in the Daily Mail cuttings of which I have to say I still have on my wall! Aswell as an apperance on the BBC. Zara seemed to be born for this, as Safi had the same treatment only a couple of years before.
I have also found this very interesting piece of video filmed the day before Zara left with Bisa to the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre. It is definately well worth a watch! Zara also appeared in the local regional magazine.
But the big news, hence the title of the post, on the 21st September, only nine days ago, Zara gave birth to her first cub! However Zara seems to be doing incredibly well, not only giving the cub all the attention that they need, but also helping to rear cubs of another lioness! (possibly Bisa). This means that not only are Zuri and Safi now grandparents, but Riziki and Karla are now great grandparents! Lion generations certainly do go very quickly, with sometimes only three years between them! Perhaps the reason for Zara's success is that she is quite a lot older than Safina and Karla were when they had their first litter so she is slightly more mature. However as far as I know this is her first litter, it is definitely her first succesful litter.
This fantastic news really is great, and hopefully the start of a new generation of Linton Lions born and raised in Africa. This has also sparked off the creation of a new blog post about the rearing of lions in captivity and the wild, as well as their reproductive habits, which will be written very shortly. A new page about Linton Lions in Uganda will also be written in the very near future.
I hope everyone has enjoyed all the pictures, and anything I hear about the cub will be posted as soon as I know.
Happy reading!
James
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