KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – Zoo Knoxville will begin showing off its newest lion cub Wednesday. The cub is expected to be out and about from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.
Rebekah Watkins, the zoo’s carnivore department leader, said gearing up for the cub’s debut has been a goal for some time.
“The process has been just trying to keep him healthy and safe and just kind of letting him and our vets kind of call the shots,” she said.
The male African lion is the child of mother Zahra and father Maji. After a difficult time caring for the cub, Zoo Knoxville began using a more “hands-on” approach to keep him happy and healthy until he’s ready to be more independent.
Watkins said the new mother is doing well.
“As some of y’all may know, she wasn’t able to keep the cub because her body just stopped producing milk for whatever reason. She did nothing wrong,” Watkins said. “These guys do more on instinct than feelings. So, she doesn’t miss him or anything like that. She’s back with Maji, our male, and they’re both doing very well. They’re both very happy together.”
Up next for the lion cub, Watkins said, will be starting to socialize with the zoo’s other residents.
“We are hoping that we can do what we call ‘howdies’ in a couple of days to just gauge the reactions between them,” Watkins said. “And that is just where they can see each other, smell each other, then we can gauge the reactions between each party, make sure that there’s no aggression there, and then we can kind of go forward.”
