Congratulations, it's a girl!

Two girls, to be exact! Wildlife Safari is happy to announce the arrival of our two young lionnesses, Mtai and Serafina. We have been waiting for these two girls from the St. Louis Zoo in Missouri since November! Poor weather this past winter prevented them from shipping out as expected, but they arrived about 2 weeks ago, and were released on display on Monday.

The girls in the huts (Serafina in the back, Mtai front and center)

(Photo credit to Jordan)

These gorgeous girls were born on Valentine's Day two years ago, making them just a few months older than our boys, Tsavo and Enzi, who will turn two in June. The boys are very excited about the arrival of the girls, and are very curious.

Mtai is the larger of the two girls, who is similar to Tsavo in personality. She's usually in your face first, and very food motivated, which makes it really easy to shift her. She is very playful, and especially likes to bite her sister in the butt.

Mtai loves watching us clean. She is fond of trying to catch the broom through the doors and under the fences.

She also loves this tree!

Serafina is a little more shy, and unsure of her new surroundings. I'm not sure she likes the boys very much. Hopefully she will adjust to her new home soon. I don't have any good pictures of her yet, because she likes to keep her distance.

Tsavo and Enzi are a very special pair. As I may have mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the boys' father and mother were a gift from Africa to the sheik of Qatar. Unfortunately, after giving birth to her three cubs, their mother didn't make it. She was not fully developed because she was so young, so the births were too much for her. After this tragedy, the sheik decided it wasn't really the best idea to have lions as pets, and gifted the family of lions to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Wildlife Safari was among a few lucky zoos and wildlife parks in the nation that entered in a drawing to have these animals at their facilities. The boys' father and sister went to separate zoos, and we got the two boys about a year ago. This family of lions have a very rare line of genetics that is not represented in North America, so they are ideal for breeding (we call these "founders").

(Photo credit to Suz) Enzi on the left, Tsavo on the right

The Species Survival Plan (SSP) is a facet of AZA which helps arrange breeding pairs in animals across North American zoos, keeping track of genetics and former breeding to prevent inbreeding, and to help maintain a healthy population of captive animals (so we don't have to take from the wild). Being part of the SSP helped us land the two girls, who are planned to breed with the boys, should introductions go smoothly.

Introducing the animals is likely to be a long, and interesting process, that will require a lot of patience and keen observation. The process includes scent intros, visual intros (all from a distance), and eventually, should their temperaments allow, they can share a fence line, and eventually (fingers crossed) they will be allowed in the same pen, and monitored for breeding behavior. This is not a process to be rushed! But hopefully we will see some lion cubs in the near future. We haven't had lion cubs born at Wildlife Safari in over 20 years!

Enzi is just so handsome!

The boys were born in a palace, and basically hand-raised so they are really social with the keepers and interns in our department. The girls, on the other hand were mom-raised, and have very different temperaments with the staff. I'm excited to see some fun enrichment and training with these girls as they get more comfortable in their new environment.



And now its time for the answer to the blog question of the day/week/month/year:

Andiamo (Andi)

Q: How many spots does a cheetah have?

A: A single cheetah can have anywhere from 2000-3000 spots!! If I told you that McHumba had 2387 spots on her, you would have to believe me (because I've counted!).

Ok, no. I haven't counted. That would be silly.

So, I originally had planned to share some cool cheetah facts this week, but with the arrival of the new lions, you will have to wait till next week!