Lioness At German Zoo Kills And Eats Her Newborn Cubs
A lioness gave birth to 2 cubs at a zoo in Germany 4 days ago and was adored by many because something like this happened for the first time in 15 years.
Staff and visitors at the Leipzig Zoo were happy that they have new lions in line.
But their celebrations didn’t last long.
Kigali, the lioness, their mother, decided to kill the cubs first and eat them.
The incident has sparked horror amongst the staff of the Leipzig Zoo.
The Leipzig Zoo explained the incident on their official Facebook page.
They said, “Our two lion cubs are dead. We are shocked and sad. Until last night Kigali had done everything right and looked after her first offspring. The lioness and her puppy evidently did well. Also in the evening hours yesterday, the inexperienced mother cared for her boys, before she suddenly ate the two young animals during grooming one after the other completely.”
Unsere beiden Löwenjungtiere sind tot. Wir sind geschockt und traurig. Bis gestern Abend hatte Kigali alles richtig…
Posted by Zoo Leipzig on Tuesday, 6 August 2019
They added, “An autopsy and thus examination of the juveniles cannot take place because of this. Kigali makes a calm impression today and had already eaten regularly during the day yesterday. She initially remains in the rear, before she leaves the mother’s room in the coming days and is re-socialized with the cat Majo.”
If you are shocked too, don’t worry you are not alone.
In order to calm us down, Julie Woodyer explained why such thing happened.
According to Julie Woodyer, the Director of Zoocheck Canada, “it’s fair to say that in most cases of infanticide, it’s related to stressors, whether it’s in the wild or in captivity. One of the primary reasons polar bears would kill their own cubs in the wild is because there isn’t enough food even for them to eat.”
Julie added, “Once you remove those stressors these problems shouldn’t exist, but they do because zoos have created different kinds of stressors for the animals because they haven’t evolved to cope in that small environment. Polar bears are wide-ranging carnivores that don’t do well when you confine them.”
This is just one of the reasons why wild animals should not be locked in zoo cages and should be roaming free in the wild.