Bhubaneswar: Lioness Bijli gave birth to 5 cubs at Nandankanan Zoological Park, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, on Thursday.
Bijli was brought from Indore Zoo in 2020. It is for the fourth time that the 9-year-old lioness has given birth to litters.
According to zoo officials, this time too the litter got sired by the lion Samrat, who was brought from Kanan Pendari zoological garden, Bilaspur (also known as Bilaspur zoo). “The mother is taking care of the cubs and hence not separated. Therefore, sex determination of the cubs also couldn’t be done. Mother and cubs are under CCTV surveillance,” they added.
With this, number of lions in the the zoo has now gone up to 26.
The Asiatic lioness became a mother for the first time on July 21, 2021, when the second wave of COVID swept across Odisha and shutdowns were order of the day, but she was unable to tend to the cubs after one was found to be stillborn. Following this, the male cub died after three days. The other cub, Barsha, was hand-reared by Prasanta Gouda, animal-keeper at the zoo. She became a mother for the second time on March 17, 2022, ((1 cub – Kamini, hand reared at Nandankanan) and for the third time on November 22 the same year. She had delivered five litters the last time and while one among them died, two were handed over to Alipore Zoo on August 28 this year.
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