Charlie the Adopt Bear

Whether it is that regal-looking mane, or that loud, heart-stopping roar, African lions are the most well-known cat on the planet and the second-largest cat species. Lions are the only species of wild cats to live in large social groups of 3 to 30 lions, called a pride. The pride females usually stay together for life, but the males will only remain with the pride for a few months to several years. Lions will greet each other by rubbing their head and faces together, and can sleep for up to 20 hours a day!

Our lion pride consists of Roary, Asali, Imara, and Nyasi. Roary was born in 2016 at the Buffalo Zoo and was the only male in a litter of three cubs. He loves playing with his toys and in the snow and is very charming. Asali was born in 2005 at Denver Zoo. Asali’s eyes are light in color, almost amber, and she has a slight nick out of her left ear. Imara and Nyasi are sisters born in 2015 and are Asali’s daughters. Nyasi is playful and has a small white patch on her left shoulder. Imara has a strong personality and is the dominant pride female.

For enrichment, the lions enjoy a wide variety of toys and activities. One of their favorites is a “weeble,” which is sturdy enough to withstand the strength of their teeth and claws and swings around as they swipe it with their paws. The base is heavily weighted and will bounce back when knocked over, providing hours of entertainment. They also enjoy 5-gallon water jugs; they will play with them for hours and carry them around like prey.

Training is essential for the health and wellbeing of our animals; it is also another form of enrichment. Our lion pride is trained for blood draws, hand injections of vaccines, opening mouth to allow their care team to visually check teeth and mouth health, ultrasounds, and echocardiograms.

You can learn more about our pride’s care, enrichment, training, and ways you can help protect wild lions during Keeper Talks starting in April.

Once known as Siberian tigers, they are the largest subspecies. Tiger subspecies are examples of a cline - a gradual difference in the appearance of a species as it adapts to different climates and habitats in its distribution area. Tiger subspecies vary in size, color, striping pattern, and coat. There were once nine subspecies of tigers, but the Balinese, Caspian, South China, and Javan tigers are extinct. There are only about 400 Amur tigers in the wild, with 95% inhabiting the Russian Far East forest. The biggest threat to them is habitat destruction and illegal hunting.

We have two Amur tigers - Mara and Natasha. They love cold weather and can go outside year-round. Mara was born in 2006 at the Pittsburg Zoo. She enjoys tearing up boxes and paper or anything with fun scents. Natasha was born in 2012 and came to us from the Bronx Zoo. She usually has her tongue sticking out, is super intelligent, and can sometimes be a little stubborn. She also loves tearing up paper and boxes. She enjoys different scents and soft hay or shavings for her bed.

Don’t forget to stop by one of our keeper talks starting in April!

As top predators, African lions play a vital role in stabilizing the ecosystem, but they have disappeared from 94 percent of their historical range, and are now only found in sub-Saharan Africa. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates fewer than 25,000 lions remain in Africa, with their most significant threats being sport hunting, habitat loss, and human-lion conflict.

One of the leading causes is the fast rate at which they lose their habitats due to expanding human populations and agriculture, settlements, and road growth. Another threat to African lions is decreased natural prey from poaching, bushmeat trade, and habitat loss. Without a balance of prey species, African lions will attack livestock for food, and farmers will kill these lions in retaliation.

Helping humans learn to live with African lions is critical to ensuring survival. Organizations are working to help decrease these conflicts by creating protected areas for African lions, offering to compensate farmers when local African lion populations rise or paying for livestock killed by an African lion, hoping to prevent farmers from killing the animals.

To help protect African lions in the wild, the Zoo supports the organization Ewaso Lions. They have research studies in northern Kenya focusing on understanding the factors driving lion pride establishments, their associations and movement in the wild, the extent of human-lion conflict, and the impact of habitat loss. Ewaso Lions firmly believes that the success of African lion conservation hinges on the involvement of the local people. They work hand-in-hand with local communities to provide education, training, and improve conservation practices that help people and wildlife, with long-term solutions for African lion conservation. You can learn more about all our projects by visiting here.

Amur tigers play a critical role in their forest ecosystems and act as an indicator of overall ecosystem health. As top predators, they keep populations of prey species in check, maintaining the balance between herbivores and the vegetation upon which they feed. Tigers are a keystone species necessary for their ecosystem to survive.

Once found throughout Russia, northern China, and the Korean peninsula, by the 1940s, the Amur tiger was on the brink of extinction due to hunting, with numbers estimated at around 30 individuals. In 1947, Russia became the first country to grant the tiger complete protection. International conservation efforts have stabilized the number of Amur tigers in the wild.

There are still significant threats to this population. They remain critically endangered due to poaching, encroaching human populations, and the loss of habitat, and therefore the disappearance of traditional prey such as wild deer, goats, sheep, and pigs. As the Amur tiger loses its habitat and prey species, they increasingly conflict with humans as they attack domestic animals—and sometimes people. This human-tiger conflict increases the importance of education, training, and advocacy within these communities while creating programs to reduce or eliminate these conflicts in a good way for both tigers and humans.

The Columbus Zoo has assisted organizations within tigers’ native habitat to help with training, research, and conflict mitigation. Through education programs and setting up camera traps to identify, trap, and translocate tigers that threaten people and livestock, we can help people living in the tiger range without killing the tigers. You can learn more about all our projects by visiting here.