Discovery
A Barbary lion Khalila walks with one of her cubs in their enclosure at the zoo in Dvur Kralove, Czech Republic, Thursday, Sept. 10. Three Barbary lion cubs have been born in a Czech zoo, a welcome addition to a small surviving population of a rare majestic lion subspecies that has been extinct in the wild. Three females that have yet to be named were born on July 5 in the Dvur Kralove safari park. (AP)
3 rare lion cubs born:
Three Barbary lion cubs have been born in a Czech zoo, a vital contribution to a small surviving population of the rare lion subspecies that is extinct in the wild.
The triplets, all female, were born on July 5 in the Dvur Kralove park. They have taken their first steps in their outdoor enclosure this week under the careful supervision of their mother, Khalila. They are yet to be named.
One of the biggest lion subspecies, which once roamed its native northern Africa, Barbary lions were almost completely wiped out due to human activities. Many were killed by gladiators in Roman times, while hunting contributed to their extinction later.
It’s believed Barbary lions went extinct in the wild in the middle of the 1960s. Only a few dozen survived in the collection of the King of Morocco.
The Czech zoo is part of a pan-European endangered species program that coordinates efforts for their survival in captivity.
Currently, their global population is estimated at around 100. (AP)
❑❑❑ ‘Mining ban in parks’:
Zimbabwe’s government says it has banned mining in its national parks, but an environmental group that had taken court action to stop the development of a coal mine in an elephant-rich park said on Wednesday that it will insist on “more than just words.”
Reports that a Chinese firm had started exploratory work to mine coal within Hwange National Park alarmed environmental and wildlife groups, who took legal action to stop it. In an apparent response to the legal proceedings, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa announced the government will not allow mining in national parks.
The Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association, which applied to the High Court to stop the planned mining, welcomed the government’s statement but said it would continue with the court process unless the government takes legal steps to enforce the announced ban.
“The important thing for us is to get an interdict which is legally binding,” Shamiso Mtisi, the association’s deputy director, told The Associated Press Wednesday.
Local environmental groups allege that mining in national parks has been going on for a while.
“We pray that all these mining titles (in Hwange) and others which are unknown to the public will indeed be cancelled,” the Center for Natural Resource Governance said in a statement Wednesday. It described
the prioritization of mining over “a more stable and eco-friendly” sector such as tourism as “self-defeating.”
Mining in the wildlife-rich southern African country’s national parks “is wide