LAHORE: Actress Babra Sharif reached Lahore Zoo on Wednesday to adopt a lion cub born just two weeks ago.

Ironically, the lioness, the mother of the cub, has stopped giving attention to it.

Babra Sharif, who played with the cub for an hour or so on the lawns of the zoo, said: “This beautiful creature of God is just irresistible.”

The actress has adopted the cub for a year under the zoo adoption scheme and deposited Rs0.2 million cash for the feed of the animal.

The zoo will now place a plaque on the cage of the cub bearing Babra Sharif’s name as the sole adopter of the animal.

She was received at Lahore Zoo by Director Muhammad Shafqat and Deputy Director Mudassar Hasan along with the zoo staff. She also fed the cub with a milk feeder.

The actress has named the cub Shenko. Ms Sharif said she liked the name since “Shenko means courageous and it’s also the name of a Russian footballer”.

The adopted cub is in bad health. Zoo vet Dr Babar Saleem said at least next two months were extremely critical for it.

“The cub has developed rickets owing to malfactorial disorder. The second major reason behind cub’s deteriorating health is that it could not have her mother’s milk,” he said.

The lioness had A Galactia (loss of milk production owing to hormonal imbalance) and she stopped giving attention to the cub.

Saleem said the cub was given a milk replacer but the exact milk replacer that suited such cubs was in the process of shipment from USA and would reach Lahore in a couple of days.

The actress also brought her ailing Cockatoo (an Australian parrot) for treatment at the zoo.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2015

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