We hear a lot of news about the circus in recent years. As children, we may have loved seeing the circus come to town but now that we know what is really going on behind the scenes, it saddens us. Every once in awhile, however, we hear news that makes us glad that people are paying attention to what is taking place. It occurred when two endangered white lions were rescued from the circus. They now have two lion cubs of their own.
The names of the cubs are Simba and Nala. They are named after the characters in The Lion King and were born on July 28. It occurred after the rescue from the circus by the Caresse de Tigre sanctuary in France.
The two cubs are doing quite well and they weigh about 6 pounds each. They are currently living in the sanctuary with the owners, who are two former circus performers. One of those owners, Klimond Brigitte posted a video of the cubs playing with other pets.
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Metropoles reported that the sanctuary is on 300 ha acres of forest near La Mailleraye-sur-Seine in northeastern France.
There are many endangered animals and they include the white lion. They are listed on the IUCN Red list as being ‘vulnerable’.
You typically find White Lions in South Africa but there were only 11 left in the wild as of 2018 according to Whitelions.org. There are thought to be fewer than 300 of these lions in captivity worldwide.
According to National Geographic, there is a genetic mutation that can cause a white lion but in reality, they are light brown. They also are not albino lions, which are lions that don’t produce pigment.
Craig Packer, director of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota said that the gene that leads to White Lions is ‘like blue eyes in a population of Caucasians. A few people have them, but most don’t’.
The cubs will stay with each other for a while but then they will be separated. Simba is likely to go to an animal shelter in France and Nala will go to a park in England.
Klimonde said that without their interaction, the parents would never have met.
“The owners of the two lions wanted to sell them to a circus. We had to raise five thousand euros to pay for them, and now they belong to us.”
Source: Unilad