Lion: bad brother, good father

Leon, African lion (Panthera leo bleyenberghi, lev konzsky) from ZOO Usti nad Labem, Czech republic

Leon and his sister Ronja came to ZOO together, being very fixed to each other. Ronja was, of course, given some contraception, but it did not work! So finally, Ronja gave birth to three female cubs. ZOO decided to let her take care of the cubs, because in the wild, big cats have to learn, how to be good mothers. Very often, they are not able to rise their first litter and the cubs die. So ZOO wanted Ronja to learn her role. Surprisingly, Ronja managed to rise all three kittens, who are now more then year old and are healthly, althought their parents are siblings. Strange, but nice!


Other and better shots:





Much more shots of big cats in my ZOO gallery: [link]



_{This photo belongs to me and I can very easily prove, that it was me, who took this shot. So please, respect my copyright if you want to use my work, ask me first to gain my permission, please! Thank you}