Editor Mr.Mayank Rawat ( Chief Editor Mr. Rohit Mishra )
New Delhi: An Asiatic male lion cub, born to lioness named Mahagauri, died at the Delhi zoo on Thursday, marking the second death of the four lion cubs born at the zoo on Sunday. Officials said the underweight and weak cub was found to have not been taking the feed well. The first cub, born underdeveloped, died on Tuesday.
Sanjeet Kumar, director of the National Zoological Park, said, “As per CCTV observation, one of the cubs was taking mother’s milk less frequently than the other cub on Wednesday. It had very little or no milk and seemed very weak and dull at night. It was decided on Thursday to intervene and bring it to the hospital for proper care and hand-rearing. The cub was found underweight, about 700 grams, and very weak.”
Zoo officials said supportive therapy and kitten replacement milk formula, along with all necessary therapy, were given to the cub. “It died around 3 pm despite the best efforts by the vet team,” said Kumar.
The other two cubs are said to be active. “The first cub is with the mother and is taking the mother’s feed regularly. The second cub, which is being hand-reared for two days, is also responding to the feed formula and is active. In the last two days, this cub gained around 150 grams in weight, and all vitals are normal,” said Kumar. He added that continuous monitoring of both cubs is being done by the animal keeper and veterinary team.
On Sunday, Delhi zoo saw the birth of four cubs to the 5-year-old lioness Mahagauri and 5-year-old lion Maheshwar. It was the first successful breeding of the species at the zoo since 2009. Both Mahagauri and Maheshwar came to Delhi Zoo from Gujarat’s Junagadh in 2021 when they were only cubs, 1.5 years old.
Mayank Rawat
