Bhubaneswar: Two days after giving birth three cubs in her third litter, lioness Rewa passed away at Nandankanan Zoological Park, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, on Monday.
On Saturday, the 12-year-old lioness delivered the first cub at 9.33 am in the feeding chamber, the second at 3.58 pm after being administered oxytocin and the third at 5.56 pm. While one cub was stillborn, she rejected the two remaining cubs, who were then shifted to the neonatal ICU for hand-rearing.
She was mated with lion Jeet in October 2024 and delivered the cubs after a 103-day gestation.
“On January 26 evening, Rewa experienced complications during giving birth to a deceased cub. Despite round-the-clock monitoring, supplements, and care, Rewa succumbed on January 27 after delivering the said stillborn cub,” a zoo official said.
Rewa was brought to Nandankanan from Kamala Nehru Prani Sangrahalaya, Indore, in 2020 when she was seven years old. Earlier, she gave birth to two litters sired also by Jeet, producing five cubs, four of which — Simba, Keshari, Shivam, and Maya — are alive and being hand-reared.
On March 27, the zoo welcomed three lion cubs and named them Amar, Akbar, and Anthony — all born to Rewa. Out of the current litter, one cub is male and the other is female.
With her death, Nandankanan is left with 23 lions, including 15 Asiatic lions (10:5) and 8 hybrid lions (4:4).
