NEW DELHI: Delhi Zoo may soon welcome another Asiatic lion cub, with pregnant lioness Mahagauri expected to give birth on June 27, officials said. The development has revived hopes for the zoo’s lion breeding programme, which had struggled for years before Mahagauri delivered cubs in 2025 after an 11-year gap.
Interestingly, the number 27 has become closely associated with lion births at the National Zoological Park. Officials said every successful lion birth at the zoo since 2009 has taken place on the 27th—including births on June 27 in 2009 and 2014, and April 27, 2025.
“It may be a numerical coincidence, but all the recent lion births at the zoo happened on the 27th. Naturally, it has become a memorable date for us,” an official said.
Mahagauri’s expected delivery is also significant because she is likely to become the first lioness at the zoo since 2009 to conceive again within about a year of giving birth, a rare occurrence in the zoo’s recent breeding history. Officials said lion breeding at Delhi Zoo remained healthy until 2009, with cubs being born every few years. However, the programme declined sharply afterward and nearly came to a standstill.
By 2021, Sundaram, a lion born at the zoo in 2009, was the only lion left at the facility. Now around 17 years old, Sundaram’s ageing prompted zoo authorities to search for new breeding stock. To revive the population, Delhi Zoo brought one male and two female lions from Junagadh in Gujarat in 2021. Among them was Shailja, born in 2020, who was expected to strengthen the breeding programme.
However, officials said the plan suffered a setback after Shailja sustained a serious injury while moving inside her enclosure. She later developed a paralysis-like condition in her hind limbs, leaving her unable to breed. As a result, hopes for expanding the lion population now largely rest on Mahagauri and Maheshwar.
Their first successful breeding resulted in the birth of five cubs on April 27, 2025. However, three cubs died shortly after birth as they were not fully developed. The remaining two survived after veterinarians hand-reared them on artificial cat milk because Mahagauri was initially unable to nurse them.
Closely monitoring
Officials believe Mahagauri’s second pregnancy may yield better results. Having already gone through one reproductive cycle, she is expected to give birth to stronger and healthier cubs this time. Veterinarians are closely monitoring her health, diet and enclosure conditions as expected delivery date approaches.
