French zoo welcomes rare Barbary lion cubs

September 15 2006 at 02:34AM

Les Sables D’Olonne, France – Two Atlas lion cubs, which are extinct in the wild, have been born in a zoo in western France, the zoo said on Thursday.

Djebel and Taza, both females, were born on July 25 to seven-year-old mother Jerada and 17-year-old father Bali, the Sables d’Olonne zoo said.

The last known Atlas lion in the wild, a sub-species also known as Barbary or Nubian lions, was killed by a poacher in Morocco in 1922.

Around 50 live in zoos around the world.

Jerada was being “a real mother hen and very protective”, the zoo’s scientific director Sandrine Silhol said. – Sapa-AFP

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