Tiny Tejas the lion cub offers glimmer of hope for his species

Oct 2 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

Asiatic Lion Cub, at Chester Zoo

BOTTLE-FED rare lion cub Tejas (click here to watch video) already has his future mapped out.

Just 350 Asiatic lions remain in their homeland of western India and it is hoped Tejas’ birth at Chester Zoo will help the species claw back from the brink of extinction.

Once old enough, he is likely to be moved to a zoo in France where he will form a new bloodline and help rebuild the population of these rare lions.

Just 2.6lbs when he was born, he has more than trebled in weight under the expert care of carnivore team leader Alan Wood- ward, who prepares special cat milk.

His brother, born at the same time, was much smaller and died from an infection – so great effort is taken in caring for Tejas.

Mr Woodward said: “If we had not intervened he would have died within a few days.”

Like any baby, Tejas likes sleeping a lot between his three-hourly feeds.

Tejas has several more weeks of bottle feeding.

Click here to watch a video of Tejas.