White lion triplets born at Polish zoo
BORYSEW, Poland - The owner of a private zoo in central Poland said Tuesday he feels three times lucky with the birth of white lion triplets who are getting loving care from their mother.
Andrzej Pabich, head of the zoo in Borysew, said white lions often have defects that prevent giving birth, or mothers may reject the cubs. Triplets are rare.
The white lion is a rare color
mutation of the Kruger subspecies of African lion found in some wildlife
reserves in South Africa and in zoos around the world. Pabich says about 90 of them are now in existence.
"Luckily the birth went all smoothly," Pabich said. "We had doubts whether it would be all OK: won't (she) reject them, will she have milk? But all went luckily well in the end. The mother accepted (the cubs), is feeding them and is very caring."
The zoo will name the cubs after they grow a little more and can be weighed and identified as either male or female, Pabich said. They will be allowed on an outdoor run in April.
Opened in 2008, the zoo has animals of 80 species, including white tigers and white camels, and drew 160,000 visitors last year.
Pabich is a machinery mechanic who
loves animals. His son, Dariusz, and a team of veterinarians work at the
zoo.
