LAHORE: Two lion cubs born on the Independence Day at the Lahore Zoo have survived two important weeks after their birth which indicate they may go on to complete their natural life span.

Lioness Kajol gave birth to three cubs, two of them have survived while the third one was a stillbirth. Among the survived cubs, one is male and the other female. Both the cubs are active and in an excellent health condition.

According to wildlife experts, the survival rate of newborn cubs depends a lot on their mother. A good-tempered mother gives a lot of care to her cubs and Kajol has a splendid track record in this regard.

She had been brought to the zoo from the Lahore Safari in 2012. The father of the cubs, Tony, was brought from the Karachi zoo. With the addition of these two new cubs, the figure of lions has increased to nine in the Lahore zoo.

Zoo Deputy Director Mudassar Hasan told Dawn both cubs were stable and in a good state of health.

He said the zoo would soon hold a ceremony for the newly-born cubs in which children from different educational institutions would be invited to cut a cake.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2014