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.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
