Ukrainian zookeepers were shocked to see six snow white lion cubs born in captivity to tawny-colored parents. So how about taking them out of captivity and putting them back into their natural environment, so they can take their rightful places as Kings/Queens of beasts.
(Yeah, yeah, I know, ANOTHER off-topic post which seems to bother a few BNI regulars)
UK Daily Mail These six stunning white cubs are among the rarest lions that exist on the face of the planet. Born in Ukraine two weeks ago, three of them in a safari park and three in a zoo in the coastal city of Yalta, they all share a recessive gene that gives them their unique pure white colour.
They have been brought together to be raised by keepers at the Yalta Zoo. As yet the cubs have no names, but they will be given some in a few months when they grow up White lions are not albinos. Like blue eyes in humans, the animals’ white colour is caused by a recessive gene shared by both parents.
Staff at Yalta Zoo, where the first two female cubs were born, said they weren’t expecting the white cubs, which came from a normal-coloured tawny mother.
Alexander Dyakov, Yalta Zoo’s vet told the International Business Times: ’We expected that the cubs would be beige or straw-coloured, the natural colour lions, but we were really, really pleasantly surprised.
‘That is, it’s a great rarity for Ukraine, for Europe, for the whole world, white lions are a real rarity. And we have two female lion cubs, absolutely healthy, absolutely strong. We wait for them to grow up and be exhibited.’
The animals are being raised in the zoo director’s office for the time being. The tawny lioness mother didn’t produce enough milk to feed them so zookeepers give them a bottle every two hours.
White lions are native to only the Greater Timbavati region of South Africa, an area characterised by white sandy riverbeds and long grass scorched pale by the sun.
They are regarded as sacred animals by the people of that region, but after Europeans ‘discovered’ them in the Seventies, many were taken from the wild to captive breeding and hunting operations, according to the Global White Lion Protection Trust.
These removals, along with lion culling and trophy hunting of male lions, depleted the gene pool and the animals have been technically extinct in the wild for the past 12 years.
In their natural habitat, white lions are regarded as ‘apex predators’, able to hunt successfully in day and night and take down prey as large as giraffes.
Despite their rarity, white lions are not yet classified as endangered as biologists still regard them as ultimately the same as their tawny equivalents.
The Global White Lion Protection Trust is campaigning for white lions to be recognised as a subspecies of lions, so that they can be protected under international law.
However, the genetic marker that makes white lions unique has not yet been identified by scientists and research into the animals is ongoing.
The trust estimates that there are no more than 300 white lions in existence. In recent years it has reintroduced the animals to a nature reserve within Greater Timbavati in an effort to eventually reintroduce the gene to wild lions.
Here’s a video of two of the cubs:
I LOVE them!!! How Beautiful!! thanks
Beautiful but probably contra survival in the current range of wild lions. The tawny color aids in cameoplaging lions on the hunt. Lions once had a much larger range including europe and siberia. In siberia ths color would be effective.
Read the whole post. If they were the most fit as hunters, tawny lions would be the endangered version.
Make that I read the whole post.
The reality with big cats born in captivity (except perhaps solitary leapords) is that they cannot be returned to the wild where others of their species hunt as they have no training in the hunt and will starve or be quickly killed as interlopers. The time and effort it would take to actually enable them to survive and thrive would be daunting.
opar, ever see ‘Born Free?’ Check out the Youtube video called ‘Christian the Lion’
I love all your posts Ms. BNI, even if they are off topic, haha!
I remember in college when I was a Biochemistry major and we studied animal genetics and behavior. Very interesting stuff. These lion cubs are beautiful.
Hopefully when they grow up they will go and maim and devour some crazy Muslim terrorists!
How about taking them out of captivity and putting back into their natural enviroment, where they can take their rightful place among kings and queens, of beasts, aaah wrong, and should not happen, one reason only, they are a fluke of nature, and in the wild these predators would be unable to survice, these good looking critters, as they may be, would not last very long in the wild under normal conditions being white as snow, they’d stick out like a sore thumb, whereas, all natural predators, oooh, say a predatory male in search of a pride and terrorory would instantly kill these fine looking cubs, thus, sucuring their deaths as unnatural in their place among beasts.
So yes it’s a good story and a fluke at that, but get real wishing upon death for these cubs I don’t think is the best of idea’s.
Semper Fi
Oh! it’s very beautiful
BNI, as far as I’m concerned, you can go “off-topic” as often as you like! The subject matter has ALWAYS been outstanding! And these gorgeous little lion cubs are irresistible! May they eventually be ret’d to So. Africa and their natural habitat, where they can do all the nature stuff for which they were originally intended…
Thanks, Joy, you’d be surprised at all the angry emails I get when I do.
It’s your site!!!
My wife has got me addicted to Jackson Gallaxy on the Animal Planet channel. Jackson Gallaxy is known as a cat behaviorist and works with cat owners on resolving certain behavior issues with their cats, in my option it’s always the human that’s the problem.
I disagree… the cat here has attacked my 7 year old nephew TWICE in the last week. Of course, my sister says the cat used to attack her when she was pregnant with my nephew.
Cats are EVIL!
Stunning animals, they should NOT spend the rest of their lives in captivity even in “safari parks” for the benefit of the human species. They should NOT be tamed in any way and should be raised in such a manner that they can be released to the wild and survive in the wild. the time is long overdue when inferior humans should STOP INTERFERING with the lives of wild animals, except when they need some help to survive. They were not put on this earth to be gawked at in lands foreign to their own.
Awesome. Well Ukraine is a more civilized country even if poor so I would expect those cubs will be treated good. Plus being white I’m sure they will attract many visitors so they will help to pay for their upkeep. Lots of pork ribs for these guys.
They are beautiful creatures. As such Muslims probably believe they are demonic. Just thought I would add that Bonnie so it would be on topic. ha-ha.
Thanks, Jer.
Awww they’re adorable. It’s nice to see the odd gorgeous little face on BNI instead of hate-filled, camel-humping, kiddie-fiddlers with their stupid little goaties. I know which one I’d prefer to see caged… Thanks for this post
Thumbs up on those thoughts. I’m also really glad BNI posted this story.
Thank you Bonni, I consider these little side trips crucial to our well being as we plod along on our mission.
Thanks for this Bonni. A pleasant read. I am happy to see that 3+2=6. Based on the group picture it appears that the two large cubs were one litter and the four smaller ones the other litter. Unless we are seeing the range in size due to male/female differences. But, there are 6 total for sure.
Tom, I noticed that too. The site was down all day, but I’ll change it now.
To cute! So much beauty in our world. Some are just to blind to see and appreciate.
Adorable pictures!!!! Thanks Bon
Teh cuteness!!!
Thanks, needed it today.
Au contraire Bonni, beauties such as this are a welcome sight for sore eyes. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you BNI for that! They are so cute I want one! Thats my motherly instinct coming out! I hope when they grow up the lion keepers will feed them a couple of live Muslims! But I think they will spit them out as they vulgar things!!
Nothing wrong with off topic feel good stories. Thanks mate.
yes i agree these cubs are very cute.
So huggable!!!
I always suspected you were racist against tawny-colored cubs. >.<
Freedom, LOL! I AM, I have 4 white tiger cubs and one ginourmous white tiger in my apartment. Stuffed animals, of course.
<3
I wouldn’t want to see them in the wild.
poachers would love to get those animals
Those are some handsome and beautiful lions.
Have you ever seen the video of Christian the lion being re-united w/his owners in the wild?
Some guys bought Christian when he was a cub, in London, in the 1960′s. They then discovered that keeping a Lion in their basement wasn’t working out and had to arrange to have Christian released into the wild. They later went back to where Christian was released (the guy who released Christian said he came back to that spot on a regular basis) and he came running down to meet them.
Iphobe, I just saw the one-hour documentary last weekend: Here’s the YT video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cqouVL0AiQ
London in the 60′s must have been an interesting place to be. I wouldn’t even bother going to the London of today, because why the hell would I want to travel all that way to see a province of Pakistain?
That was a neat video BNI. Thanks for sharing it. I had only seen the video where Christian met his humans after being released.
I love the pictures! I WANT ONE. At least for a little while.
NICE!
They are so beautiful and incredibly special. I pray they are treated with kindness and respect and have the best of everything. I’d give anything to hold and play with all of them.
I wonder if I could train one to keep the bears out of my yard?
Problem with the young is they grow up and go from expecting food from you to seeing you as food.
Christian the Lion never ate any human beings.
Neither did the Tigers that Seigfried and Roy kept. The Tiger that hurt Roy from what I understand was actually trying to help him.
This is really good and thanks for sharing
Couldn’t get to the comments earlier {I WOULDA been first!
} – just wanted to say, let the wankers wank – these babies are my idea of HEAVEN!! 
{My dream is to come into copious amounts of money, buy a few thousand acres, set up cabins for veterans, then raise cheetahs & clouded leopards for conservation …………………….. (SIGH!) }
Semper Fi’
DM
DM, I will be waiting for an invitation.
Cute cats!
White lions! Could we name one of them “Kimba” after the cartoon white lion?
Love them!
Sweet! To hell with the nay sayers. We all need a little levity from muzzie madness.
Thanks Bonni!
AMEN!!!!
Ms. BNI, you can be guaranteed that I’ll NEVER chide you for such beautiful relief-postings like this one of the white lions!! Very cute – BRAVA!!!!
Hi Bonni,
Love the site and have been visiting it for a while; your coverage of world events is unique and refreshing to read given the trend in mainstream media to ignore these kind of topics.
But when I saw this post I was a bit surprised. I mean, you know what the left accuses you of right? They would say that you are a racist (which we all know is simply an attack on your credibility).
My point is this: posting ‘White Power Rules’ on your site, which instrumental to the cause, does a disservice to us all.
I really hope I’m missing out on some kind of in joke here.
Ryan, it is a double entendre which refers to the power of lions in general and specifically, white lions here. But you’re right, it was intentionally designed as a teaser line (making people want to read more), but mainly to infuriate lefties and then immediately make them feel stupid for getting duped by the headline. They can call me a racist, but without showing the content of the post, it is meaningless.
FYI, None of my headlines are written casually.
Everyone loves big cats.
So cyoooooot! We need the occasional break from the counter-jihad stories, so don’t let the complainers get you down, BNI! They can start their own site if they don’t like it (not that anyone would see their site anyway, lol).
Thanks, FI, I will do that from now on.
What a nice change of pace Bonni! Seeing and reading something that just makes one go Aaawwwww! Instead of Aaaarrrggghhh!
Beautiful little babies for sure! Love ‘em all! So precious…especially the pic where the little one is feeding from a bottle…
Agreed.
During WWII, Nazi Germany’s minister of Propaganda, Paul Josef Goebbels, had a film made about America’s supposed “decadence,” and how the Germans were better in all ways than the “negrified-judaized” Americans.
It backfired. Germans watched the film, saw Americans having fun even in the midst of wartime. They compared what they saw to their own lives, and it helped to demoralize the Germans somewhat. Also, rather than inflaming hatred, it made Germans even more curious about America and Americans.
You know, many Germans had to be thinking, “aren’t they in this war, too? If they’re having a good time and enjoying themelves when they can, and still devastating our cities and driving our troops back, how can we hope to win?”
Point is, one needs to be diverted from the constant fighting once in a while in order to be fresh enough to continue the fight. Good job, Bonni!
Although I am very new to your site, I follow a few sites along the same lines as yours, and nowadays it’s mostly stuff that boils my blood. So to have a bit of beauty, comedy,or serenity mixed in once in awhile, let’s me breathe and realize the whole world is not pure crap. Thanks for the beautiful breather. As far as the ones writing the mean emails, I am with Florida Infidel,screw ‘em. This is your site, you run it the way YOU want, and they can go start their own site or go suck an egg. I think you are doing a great thing here.Thank God someone is. Thank you.
Thanks Adela, and welcome to BNI.