Plzen, West Bohemia, Nov 11 (CTK) – A Barbary lion, a rare species that does not survive in the wild any more but only in captivity, was born in the Plzen zoo on November 3, its spokesman Martin Vobruba has told CTK.
The little male is the first offspring of Neyla, a three-year-old Barbary lioness whom the zoo acquired from the Hannover zoo together with her sister Tamika in 2015.
In September 2016, Tamika gave birth to a female, the first Barbery lion born in the zoo’s history and the first lion born in Plzen in four decades.
The raising of the cub, however, was very difficult as the attendants had to regularly take it from its mother for additional feeding.
Unlike Tamika, Neyla has enough mother milk and cares for her offspring effectively, Vobruba said.
Before, the last time the Plzen zoo succeeded in breeding the African lion was in 1971 and 1974. It resumed its attempts in 2002, but all lionesses involved had problem having or raising offspring.
In September 2015, Tamika and Neyla arrived from Hannover and joined Mates, a local male coming from the Olomouc zoo, north Moravia, which is the most successful in breeding the Barbary lion.
