Austrian zoo says lion cub triplets may be rare Atlas crossbreed

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

VIENNA (AFP) — Lion cub triplets thought to be a sub-species of the Atlas lion, extinct in the wild for almost a century, have been born at a Vienna zoo, curators said Monday.

Tiergarten Schonbrunn Zoo said in a statement that the mother and the father "display typical traits of a sub-species of the Atlas lion," also known as Barbary or Nubian lions and best known for the male's extravagant, full-flowing mane.

The zoo said very few of these lions live on even in captivity -- an AFP count in September 2006 put the number at around 50, after two Atlas lion cubs were born in a zoo in western France.

The last-known Atlas lion in the wild was killed by a poacher in Morocco in 1922.

The mother, named Somali, is behaving in an agitated manner, the vets...