Ten lions, all born in captivity, have been sent from the Tel Aviv Safari Zoo to South Africa, to help a reported shortage of the “king of beasts” in their natural habitat there.
The lions — five males and five females — were presented Sunday free of charge to a private farm in South Africa, where they are to be raised, but the breeder there paid the charges for shipment by sea aboard a Zim vessel.
A safari spokeswoman said the aim was to stop inbreeding among the 40 lions in the Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan Safari Zoo, where a highly successful breeding program has now brought about a lion population too large for the zoo to handle — even though the lionesses have been given birth control pills for some years.
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