THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As soon as Museums Minister O J Janeesh pulled the lever and opened the cage, Simba and Suri rushed out, curious about their new space. Unbothered about the hundred eyes looking at them, the lion cubs ate and wandered around their new home. Suri playfully jumped over her brother Simba and rubbed themselves against the feet of their animal keepers.
Born to Nyla and Leo, the two lions brought from Tirupati Zoo, Simba and Suri are the only fully hand-fed lion cubs born in the zoo here since 1989. The two seven-month-old lion cubs, introduced into the zoo on Tuesday, will be the main attraction this Onam season.
Nyla had given birth to cubs thrice earlier, but none of them survived. Along with Simba and Suri, there was a third cub that died within a week of its birth. Since Nyla didn’t feed the two cubs even after 12 hours of their birth, the zoo authorities had to hand-feed them.
“Since lion milk formula is not easily available, we had them on exported kitten milk formula, but later shifted to puppy milk formula as they showed uneasiness after consuming the former. When they turned four and a half months, we started introducing raw meat,” Thiruvananthapuram Zoo veterinary surgeon Dr Nikesh Kiran said.
Before releasing the cubs into the closed enclosures at the zoo, they were released into open enclosures as a trial. “They responded well to the same, but we decided to keep them in a closed space for now due to potential predator attacks,” Nikesh added.