Linton Zoo continued their success with breeding African Lions. Their younger pair of Lions made up of Zuri and Safina bred their first cub on the 13th May 2008. I visited the zoo as part of a birthday visit on the 18th May 2008, and pictured the two on that day. Here you can see how young Zuri looks compare to how you may have seen him on the blog before now that he is fully grown.
Zuri may have been sexually mature but he was not fatherhood material, still a cub in a sense, he wasn't even two years old and he was probably only half the size as he is now. He saw Zara as more of a play thing then something to be careful with, which meant that if she was left in with the two, it could have been potentially dangerous with her being so delicate.
Safina too was only two and a half years old, Safi had more of a clue as to what to do, but sadly was not too sure, so Zara had to be removed to be hand reared, and this presented Linton Zoo with a fantastic opportunity. Safi is one of the only animals who I can really see the emotion in her face, and seeing her in her den where she gave birth to Zara, gave a huge amount of sadness.
So Zara was born, and here she i pictured on the first of my two visits to see her. Pictures from this visit can be seen on this post and this post, the second post being linked to many other Zara photos and info.
The photo above shows Zara a fortnight later in early June before she left the Zoo. You can see how quickly she has grown in that time and how much more lively she looks with her eyes open and ready to play. A picture below shows her parents Zuri and Safi on that day, how much different do they look now?!
Zara's birth was an important part to increase Zuri and Safina's parenting skills, and a year later, they gave birth and reared successfully a trio of cubs, now being placed in Noah's Ark Zoo Farm in Somerset and Longleat Safari Park.
But what did the future hold for Zara?
Zara could have like many other lions gone to another British Zoo or Safari Park to be paired with another African Lion like her parents, but Zara was destined for something greater. Zara was moved to Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxborne after she was weaned at Linton Zoo. Zara became a huge star of the zoo, all of which can be found on this post. Zara was then moved to the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre, with another lioness called Bisa from Paradise Wildlife Park to be bred with their current male.
This may just seem like moving lions to another zoo, but it is so much more than that, what this is, is the first big step to reintroducing lions in the wild, now that Zara has gone to the continent where she belongs, she can now breed and have cubs in that country, making it one step closer to proper reintroduction which is the goal of any conservation project. Below are pictures of Zara and Bisa at the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre, the pictures do not belong to me and they were taken from their website.
As you can see the group live in a very natural and very spacious enclosure. At present this is the furthest that captive lions can get to living in a wild atmosphere, and they are exposed to all the same conditions that wild lions will have, insects, heat. The only difference being in that they are managed in groups and given their meat. But small steps is key, to see Zara back in her own country is a fantastic sight to see. Zara is I am very sure that female in the lower of the picture, with a very long face, she looks a lot like Safina, and she shares her rather tawny colouring.
Below is a picture of Zara' suitor once again taken from the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre website. His name is Kibonge and to me he has that look of a truly wild lion. His mane is not too long, he does not have huge amounts of un-natural belly hair and his mane is very precise but full of colour. He really does blend into his surroundings. What a superb looker?! He is also estimated to be 16 years old, so he is superb for his age!
But surely one of the best news that I have heard all year, was the announcing of the news that Zara and Kibonge have had cubs. The picture below was taken from the Linton Zoo Facebook page where the news was announced. This is the first cub born from a line of a huge number of captive bred lions, born back in Africa, in Uganda. And the best news of all is that Zara is looking after her cub superbly, as can be read in the extract from the Zoo Facebook page below...
"We've just heard the fantatic news that Zuri and Safina, our youngest pair of African Lions, have become Grandparents. Their first born Zara, who now lives in the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre in Africa, gave birth to a beautiful cub on September 21st. Zara is proving to be an attentive and very protective mum, her maternal instincts are so strong that she's even trying to look after the cubs of another lioness who were born a few days earlier. We'll keep you updated as we hear more."
The news of another litter of cubs, also makes me believe that Zara's female companion Zara has also had a litter of cubs, which in itself is also a fantastic, the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre now has it's own little pride!
The fact that Zara is rearing her own cub, despite being hand-reared herself is fantastic, and it may be due to that she is a lot older than Karla and Safina were when they had their first cub, she is four years old, so is a lot more mature, however this may not be her first litter as all of the details are all the way in Uganda! But as far as I know this is her first litter, as it is definitely her first successful litter.
Hopefully this will be the first of many litters born between the two of them, are who knows, hopefully generations below, cubs will be reintroduced into the wild. However for a start this joint effort between Linton Zoo, Paradise Wildlife Park and West Midlands Safari Park seems to have been a success.
Also any cubs born at Linton Zoo, could themselves be taken to Uganda to join Zara and her pride, so the future is brighter too. As far as lions go this is one of the only projects that I have at least seen taking lions out of Britain, which is how it has to start. Getting these British lions used to all of the sights and sounds, smells, as well as the climate of Africa is the first step, once they are used to this, and they can breed and live comfortably then we can begin to take away the human connections and help that they have.
Although a short page I believe that this is a very important subject, not many zoos can say that they have sent lions back to Africa, something that I feel more places should be interested in, especially Safari Parks, breeding so many lions, surely a future can be made for them in projects such as these?
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