Hi my name's Beth, I'm one of the carnivore keepers here at Auckland Zoo and we are really excited to
share with you that we have three new lionesses that have come from Werribee Open Range Zoo.
As you can imagine it is quite a process, bringing lions over from Australia to New Zealand.
It has been many months of planning, we had put in a whole lot of Covid-19 protocols in place should
anything happen with lockdowns in Auckland or in Australia. They were already in quarantine for 30 days
in Australia before they came to us, we didn't want the lions to be in quarantine for any longer
than they had to be, everyone knows how tedious quarantine can be, so we wanted to get them over
as quickly as possible and they were able to come to New Zealand without keepers accompanying them.
So there were a few departments involved in the process of bringing the lions,
we had vets checking them, we had our maintenance team
who were responsible for moving the crates and securing the crates to the building
and then we also had keeping staff to make sure everything is running nice and smoothly.
So after a very long night of trying to get little Ilola out of her crate, we didn't have
much success. She's quite a shy, timid individual so we decided to leave her in the crate overnight
and make sure that everything's secure and that she did have access to the house, so she could go
and see her sisters. That took a really long time, we checked back on the cameras, we must have left
about 1.30 - 2.00 in the morning and she came out of her crate sometime after 3am so we saw
her walking around, sniffing about the place. You know they're cats, they do what they want so
we just had to roll with it. They have had seven days in their back of house area as part of their
quarantine requirements and now they're still in quarantine but they are allowed out in the habitat.
Good morning! Look at those handsome ladies. So exciting, what can you see?
So we have Aziza, Kibibi and Ilola, so Aziza and Kibibi are twin sisters and Ilola is their
half-sister. So these three girls are actually related to Kura, one of our previous females, so
it's really exciting for me to have descendants of Kura back here in the zoo. At the moment they're
looking out into our rhino and nyala habitat and I think there might also be some waterbuck
out there so that will be really exciting for them, things that they have never seen before so they'll
be doing what they would naturally be doing in the wild. Being on a vantage point, scanning for
things that might be tasty for them, scanning for danger, taking in all the smells, all the sights.
So it's really exciting for them, this is the best form of natural enrichment that we can give them.
It's so exciting, I'm so happy that they're here. It's been a long process to get them
here and it's just amazing to have them outside and looking around. Lions are my
favorite animals to work with, so it's very cool for me. So lions are classed as vulnerable
in the wild, their numbers have plummeted in the last 25 years by about 50% and they are lost from
90% of their historical home range. Here at the zoo we support many conservation projects in Africa
which is amazing to be able to do, to be able to conserve ecosystems.
The role of the lions here at our zoo is advocacy, to be able to teach people about the issues that
wild lions are facing and really inspire people to make changes in their own lives to help wildlife.
So we're going to be really excited to welcome you all back to Auckland Zoo
and you can meet our lovely new lionesses.