Video posted to YouTube by CBS.”CBS News RAW”: Three rare white lion cubs born in the Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock safari park in West Germany were shown to the public and the media for the first time.
“I’m out-cuted again! They’re so darling, I don’t mind.”
Gypsy photo courtesy of Karen Fayeth.
Darling indeed and as adults they are handsome animals …
The white lion is occasionally found in wildlife reserves in South Africa and is a rare colormutation of the Kruger subspecies of lion (Panthera leo krugeri). It has been perpetuated by selective breeding in zoos around the world. White lions are not yet a separate subspecies and they have been said to be indigenous to the Timbavati region of South Africa for centuries, although the earliest recorded sighting in this region was 1938. Regarded as divine by locals,[1] white lions first came to public attention in the 1970s in Chris McBride’s bookThe White Lions of Timbavati. Up until 2009, when the first pride of white lions was reintroduced to the wild, it was widely believed that the white lion could not survive in the wild. It is for this reason that, now, a large part of the population of white lions are in zoos. Another large part, however, are bred in camps, for canned hunting trophies. MORE [Wikipedia]
Photograph of African Lion (Panthera leo krugeri) living at ZOO Bratislava courtesy of Stano Novak under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license via Wikipedia.
Awwww…. That is so sweet!
It is, isn’t it? I love them. I remember when you got a great shot last year at a big cat. Wonderful.
Precious!!