Condition of Asiatic lion cub improves

Condition of Asiatic lion cub improve

Mysore: Two weeks ago, when Asiatic lioness Gowri refused to feed her day-old cub, the Mysore zoo authorities panicked. They consulted experts, decided to hand rear it and managed to rescue it from the jaws of death.

The cub, which is now 17 days old, has responded to the special treatment rising hopes of the authorities that they can pull it off. The zoo staff, who lost the three tiger cubs of Kaveri, are taking special care to save Gowri’s cub. A vet has been assigned to monitor the cub, attend to its needs, moderate temperature at its holding room in the zoo hospital and the ward is sanitized.

The zoo received two Asiatic lions Gowri and Shankara a year ago from the Sakkarbaug Zoo in Gujarat. Gowri gave birth to the cub in July end, but within a day, she refused to take care of her litter. After consulting with their counterparts at Sakkarbaug zoo, the zoo vets removed the cub from her mother and started hand rearing it. “This is first time that an Asiatic lion has sired in the zoo and we were particular that we should save it,” Zoo Authority of Karnataka chairperson M Nanjundaswamy told TOI.

The cub is being fed with cow milk and its intake has increased. The cub will continue to be hand-reared for the next three months.Shankara is six years old, while Gowri is a year younger to him. The zoo staff banked on the expert advice from Gujarat zoo as they had similar challenge some years ago and also because the vets there have extensive knowledge after having worked in Gir national park, he said.

---

Endangered Asiatic Lion Cubs Born At UK Zoo

The Asiatic Lion is an extremely rare and endangered species, so the news out of thePaignton Zoo in Devon, England is heartening.  Four Asiatic Lion cubs were born at the zoo in May, and are thought to have a chance at survival now that they have made it through the first few months of their lives.  A cub born last year was euthanized due to a spinal condition.

“They have come through the critical first few weeks,” Neil Bemment, the curator and operations director for mammals at the zoo told the BBC.  ”We have been letting Indu get on with being a new mum – so far she seems to be doing really well.  We are cautiously excited – if she is successful then it will be thanks to a lot of care and attention from the keepers.”

If the cubs survive and thrive for another year or so, they will be shipped out to other zoos so they can breed and try to keep the dwindling Asiatic Lion population from plummeting even more.  Hunters have left fewer than 300 Asiatic Lions in the wild (the Gir Forest in Gujarat, India), with around 300 more living in zoos.