During approximately five hours of labor, Lincoln Park Zoo’s 4-year-old female African lion Zari gave birth to three lion cubs Monday evening at the Pepper Family Wildlife Center.
At 5:02 p.m., the first cub arrived. The second cub made its way into the world at 8:37 p.m. Shortly before 10 p.m., the last cub was born. All the while, their mother behaved like “a rock star,” according to zoo staff.
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She “immediately attended to the cubs, started grooming them, and then, within hours of their birth, she started nursing them and feeding them,” said the zoo’s curator of mammals and behavioral husbandry Mike Murray.
Videos of the delivery — which was monitored by the animal care and veterinary team via remote cameras to give Zari privacy — can be found on the zoo’s social media accounts, such as Facebook.
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“We knew (Monday) morning that there was at least two (cubs) and then at 2 p.m. we started seeing signs from Zari that she didn’t want to be with the rest of the pride, she wanted to be alone,” Murray said.
Female lions in the wild isolate to give birth, so Zari was allowed to do the same, according to the zoo. To continue giving the lion and her cubs privacy, the zoo announced the animals will remain behind the scenes for several weeks. The sex of the cubs is unknown.
“The next few weeks and months, it’s really going to be up to Zari to see what she’s comfortable with, and when she’s ready to introduce her cubs to the rest of the pride and then outside,” Murray said.
This is Zari’s second pregnancy, according to the zoo. On March 15, 2022, she had her first male cub, Pilipili, with her mate, Jabari. Both pregnancies are part of the African Lions Species Survival Plan, a population management effort across accredited zoos within the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
The latest pregnancy was initially suspected based on animal care staff’s observations of breeding behavior and behavioral data using ZooMonitor, a monitoring app created by the zoo. Staff then confirmed the pregnancy using hormone analysis via the collection of fecal samples.
During routine training sessions, Zari voluntarily participated in ultrasounds, which supported the diagnosis. The zoo was initially expecting a cub or two based on these regular exams.
The gestation period for African lions is between 3½ to 4 months, and litters generally are one to five cubs, according to zoo officials. Cubs nurse for approximately six months and start eating meat as young as 3 months old. At 9 months, the cubs’ older brother, Pilipili, will soon become a juvenile, or young adult.
“Zari is the rock star here. And Jabari, the dad, did an amazing job with Pilipili,” Murray said. “And so it’s really a celebration of Zari and her incredible journey that she went through last night. For us, it’s really been watching her be this incredible mom.”
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