Monarto Zoo is celebrating yet another breeding milestone with the arrival of three African Lion cubs born overnight on Wednesday 24 April to veteran mum, Tiombe, one of the zoo's five lionesses.

The birth follows a recent string of breeding success for the zoo with several high profile births including six Cheetah cubs, two Spotted Hyena cubs, a Chimpanzee infant, a Southern White Rhino calf and a zebra filly.

Zookeepers knew the big day was close when they observed Tiombe spending prolonged periods of time in the den. They were very happy to find no trace of Tiombe last Thursday morning and knew instantly a very special surprise was in store for the zoo.

Tiombe (far right) is tucked away in the den with her three cubs. Photo by Dave Mattner © Zoos SA

Monarto Zoo's African Lion cub, Jahzara, celebrated her first birthday yesterday, May 3. Keepers spoilt her with some special enrichment gifts including cardboard boxes that had been wrapped, painted or filled with shredded paper.

Our little lioness has a name – Jahzara – an African name meaning ‘blessed princess’. She certainly represents the name well as we feel we are very lucky to have her. We would like to thank PETstock (the winners of our eBay naming auction) and their members for all of the suggested names.

Our little lion cub is 9 weeks old already! I weighed her mum, Kiamba, this morning then managed to coax the cub onto the scales with mum for the first time too – a healthy 6.5kg. She is showing a keen interest in her mum’s food, and Kiamba is slowly learning to share. While she is definitely still drinking mum’s milk to increase her strength and immunity, she has very sharp teeth to steal small bites off the 4kg pieces of meat we feed Kiamba daily.

The cub is much more mobile now and being seen out of the den most days, which has the other lionesses intrigued. They can’t access it yet but are certainly interested. It has also been seen from a distance by a lucky few visitors, viewing it from the lion exhibit on their bus tour.

One of Monarto Zoo’s African Lions, Levi, sadly passed away recently after a week of deteriorating health.

Levi underwent numerous tests and x-rays to try to determine the cause of his lack of appetite and dehydration but the results failed to indicate a direct cause for his ill health. Unable to raise himself one morning, our vets decided urgent action was needed and exploratory surgery was performed. Levi survived the surgery, which uncovered an enlarged spleen that was removed, but despite staff efforts he did not survive the night.

Chief Executive Officer of Zoos South Australia, Dr Chris West said, “It’s very sad, thankfully he has fathered the cubs at Monarto Zoo. The team are mourning his death but they did all they could... it’s a sad fact that our animals don’t live forever.”

Born in November 1999 at Mogo Zoo, Levi came to Monarto Zoo in July of 2003 with his brother Leroy. The pair were introduced to four female lionesses- Tiombe, Kiamba, Zalika and Kabira - to form a breeding group and pride at Monarto Zoo. Levi was an important part of the pride and fathered two cubs in September 2007.

Known for his fiery temperament and dominant personality, Levi will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

Hi Again,

Well the day is nearly over but we still have lots to do. Mujambi's anaesthetic went really well and he has recovered beautifully so we are all really pleased. In total the procedure took 3 and a half hours!!

Hi Again,

I am in early today as I have a Supervisor's course to go to all day and we need to start preparing for the lion anaesthetic tomorrow. We do most of the setting up the day before and liaise with the Carnivore team to make sure everything is set to go first thing tomorrow morning. We plan to dart him at 0830 hours and have him up at the Health Centre by 0930 for tests.

Hello again from Dave.

Had a busy weekend even though I wasn't working! Saturday I came in to help Lynley anaesthetise our male lion Mujambi. He had a seizure on exhibit on Friday. This the second, possibly third, seizure that he has had, but this time one of the females attacked him while he was fitting and injured his back leg quite badly.

Started Thursday morning off very early to get to Monarto and anaethetise Kabira before it gets too hot. It's very hot up here again today with the temperature at about 38 deg C.

Wednesday has been another very busy day with an anaesthetic on the addax calf at Monarto this morning. It appears she has a bone chip on the lateral aspect of her humerus and some radial nerve damage. We have moved her away to a safe area where she can have some rest and hopefully the nerve will heal with time.

G'day everyone and welcome to the new Carnivore Department blog. I'm Steve McKee and I am one of the Big Cat keepers at the Adelaide Zoo. I'm a Carnivore keeper which means some days I work with Big and Small Cats; other days I work with Australian Sealions and African Wild Dogs; and sometimes I work with Otters, Meerkats...and Giraffes (?)...just to keep me on my toes.

Our Lion introduction has been taking place for sometime now so I'll start this blog with a bit of history and how we got to where we are now.