Lioness comes roaring back to Fota Wildlife Park

CORK-born Asiatic lioness, Arya, has returned to Fota Wildlife Park after spending four years at Helsinki Zoo.

The six-year-old, Arya, was born from the first-ever litter of Asian lions at Fota.

She had been transferred to Helsinki Zoo under the European Endangered Breeding programme with her sister, Amira to live with their maternal grandmother.

Arya, Amira and their brother Loki were born from mother, Gira, and father, Shanto, in August of 2017.

Lead Ranger at Fota Wildlife Park, Julien Fonteneau said: “It’s just amazing to see Arya back in the place she was born, mixing with her mother Gira and aunt Gita. It’s rare that an animal would be sent back to the place they were born, and we are thrilled that she is back home so to speak. She arrived back in July of last year.

“The European Breeding Programme approved of her relocation after four years in Helsinki as unfortunately she was ousted by the other lionesses there.”

Fonteneau explained that once at Fota, there was a long reintroduction process that involved “very careful planning and socialisation to ensure that she settled into the pride, who were essentially her mum and aunt, plus the new male, Yali” which took place over many weeks.

“It’s a very specialised process, that’s very much dictated by the needs and the responses of the individual animals. However, we’re delighted to say that she’s a lot less shy than she initially was and appears to have bonded very well with the pride,” he continued.

“Arya has been recommended to breed with Yali and judging by their interactions to date, we may not be waiting that long for our next litter!”

The Asiatic Lion Habitat was officially opened in Fota Wildlife Park in 2016, with two litters of lion cubs being born in the park to date. Pregnancy for this species lasts up to 114-118 days, after which one to five cubs are born.

Once widespread from the Mediterranean to Iran, covering most of Southwest Asia, there are now only 500-600 Asiatic lions left roaming wild in Inda, rendering the creature as an endangered species.