Lioness kills father of her three cubs in pen at Indianapolis Zoo

Zuri: the lioness had never shown any signs of aggression towards her mate before
REUTERS
Tom Powell22 October 2018

A lioness has killed the father of her three cubs by suffocating him at a zoo in the US.

Staff tried in vain to separate Zuri, 12, from Nyack, 10, after she attacked him at Indianapolis Zoo and locked her jaws onto his neck.

She continued holding her mate’s neck until he stopped moving and died, the zoo said.

The lions had lived together in the same enclosure for eight years, with zookeepers never noticing any signs of aggression between them.

Nyack: the 10-year-old lion died of suffocation from injuries to the neck
REUTERS

The zoo said it would conduct a “thorough review” into the African lion’s death in a statement posted to Facebook.

It read: “Nyack was a magnificent lion and he will be greatly missed. We appreciate the support from our community as we cope with the loss.”

The zoo added that Zuri and their three cubs are “all ok”. There are no plans to change how lions are managed at the zoo.

David Hagan, curator of Indianapolis Zoo, said: "They [zookeepers] build strong bonds with the animals so any loss affects us all greatly. For a lot of us, it's just like a family member."

It is not unusual for lionesses to attack lions in the wild, with incidents sometimes recorded on film.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT