First Report on Successful Hand Rearing of Lion Cubs at Lahore Zoological Garden, Pakistan

The Asian Lions (Panthera leopersica) were widely present in Asian forests specially in subcontinent regions. However, they are now only found in the smaller pockets of captivity for rearing and wildlife conservation even in Asian region. The present study focused on the applied care and effectiveness of hand rearing protocol of lion cubs conducted in Lahore zoological garden. The study was also helpful in determining the nutritional effects of two different feeding protocols. For this, the lion cubs were separated in two different groups to evaluate the gained body weight and its growth. Three lion cubs were present in each single group followed by single feeding protocol. The feeding protocol was carried out by using two commercially available milk replacers i.e., KMR® Milk replacer and Royal Canin® for lion cubs initially. The diet was maintained using various mineral and vitamin supplements to check its correlation with growth and weight gained. Its evident from the study that cubs reared on KMR® Milk replacer showed better growth as compared to the Royal Canin® used in the study. It was also observed that more complications occurred during feeding and rearing protocol of lions in relation to health status. Instead of all complications, hand rearing of lion cubs is recommended for conservation in captivity. But complications must be studied that occurred due to various environmental and feeding factors.