A lion cub has been born just hours after its mother Dana, rescued from a defunct zoo in war-torn Syria, was released into a wildlife reserve in Jordan.
Dana and 12 other animals, including four other lions, two bears and two tigers, had barely survived under harsh conditions in the Syrian city of Aleppo, until a few months ago a major battleground in the country’s civil war.
They were transported from Syria to Turkey and then to Jordan by the international animal charity Four Paws, stuck in cages during the three-week journey. They arrived at the al-Ma’wa reserve in northern Jordan on Friday.
A lion rescued from a zoo in the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo cuddles her newborn cub in the Ma’wa Wildlife Reserve in northern Jordan, August 12, 2017.(Four Paws/Ahu Savan An, via AP).
Dr. Amir Khalil, a vet who accompanied the animals, said that he had been worried during the transport that Dana would give birth while in a cage. In such a case, it’s unlikely the cub would have survived, he said.
Instead, Hajar, Arabic for “the immigrant,” was born sometime in the night from Friday to Saturday, in the tranquility of the wooded reserve. Staff at the reserve discovered the cub when they checked on Dana on Saturday morning.
The cub is white, a color that might change later, and weighs an estimated 1.5 to 2 kilograms (3.3 to 4.4 pounds), said Khalil who hasn’t been able yet to examine Hajar. The sex is still unknown.
— AP
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