5 male lion cubs have been born at the zoo, the first in several years. Loud Little Lions At Orana! | Voxy.co.nz
These cubs make Auckland's Kura a great grandmother. Rather appropriate on the 10th anniversery of her import from the USA!
I was pleased to hear this, as i was there when Malick from Wellington first mated with Mishka, prior to comming to Orana he had never been in contact with lionesses.
thanks excellent news. bit unfortunate though that all of them are males and they can't stay at the zoo. But nevertheless hopefully one day they will lead prides of their own!
Orana are keeping several of the male cubs, but as per policy they are castrating them to make them more docile and less aggressive with each other and the females. Unfortunatley this means they never grow manes, so end up looking at first sight like enormous lionesses.
Castration needs to be accomplished before hierarchal aggressive behaviours are established. Learned behaviours won't be unlearned by castration. A shame to have to castrate them though - they will always look like boofheads.
Im not too sure why they see the need though, sure the uncastrated males are more aggressive, but there are plenty of examples where males and females do live together in reasonable harmony. I'd rather see males with manes than the "boofheads" you mention When the Wellinton males were in Orana they were very popular, even if they did gove some of the girls a hiding.
While I don't agree with neutering of the male lions, it helps prevent unwanted breeding. Pricilla is housed with her son Ra and daughters Leah and Meeka while Kiara lives with her offspring including males Kahn and Sakura.
I visited a rescue organization for large cats and rather than castrate the males so they could prevent unwanted offspring, they actually did vasectomies. Much more difficult process, but it allowed the cats to keep their glorious manes AND prevent more unnecessary cubs of dubious DNA...
Vasectomy is fine to prevent unwanted pregnancy and yes, the male lion doesn't lose his mane. But he also doesn't lose his urge or ability to mate, so vasectomy won't solve the aggression between the males when there is a female in oestrus. I have a vasectomised male here who would have to be the greatest scrapper of all the males!
Malik sired another 2:0 cubs before going back to Wellington There's also a baby Giraffe due in May New cubs ready for first public appearance | Stuff.co.nz
i found out that thay r called 3 males 2009 toa kairangietawhiri 3 female cubs born 2009 tua tama the new cubs born this year havenot been named yet
The male 2009 cubs are called Toa, Kairangi and Tawhiri. The female 2009 cubs are called Tua and Tama. They will all be staying with us. The newest cubs born 4 Jan this year have not yet been named. They will be named by the keeper working on that section, who discovered their birth.
