Our visitors can already see the rescued lion cub from Ukraine last year.
The big cat cub was rescued from the Melitopol zoo in eastern Ukraine by private individuals from Transcarpathia and eastern Ukraine last summer. The then 9-week-old cub was first taken in by an enthusiastic animal protection family, but it became clear that this would not be a long-term solution for the animal, so they contacted our Zoo.
Our employees acted immediately and the authorities took over the animal near the border. After a general veterinary examination and vaccination, it was taken to the home of one of the park's zookeepers, who is experienced in raising big cats, for a few weeks, since it had been raised by humans.
At first, the cub’s main food was milk replacer formula, but our colleague gradually got him used to solid food. As soon as the animal was eating stable, it was returned to our animal park and we started rewilding it in the quarantine building of our park, but here we no longer asked for human help. Since the lion is the only big cat with a social lifestyle, we definitely wanted to keep it together with one of its own kind.
A small female lion of a similar age, born in the Miskolc Zoo, became her companion, with whom she lived in the quarantine building of our park until now.
Now that the animals have become constantly restless and active little teenagers, they have already got their own large enclosure system, where our visitors can see them.
The events of the 8 months are available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw6NW5F2EZI
