Keepers feed the Zoo's lions ground horsemeat. Once a week, they give them horse tails, which exercise the cats' teeth and jaws. Female lions usually give birth to a litter every two years. Females are receptive to mates for a few days several times a year, unless they are pregnant or nursing. Mating spurs ovulation.
Females give birth to one to five cubs after a gestation of about three and a half months.
Cubs nurse for six months, but start eating meat at three months. Due to varied dangers, including starvation during times of food shortage and attacks by male lions taking over prides, up to 80 percent of lion cubs die within their first two years of life. Zoo lions may live up to 25 years, while wild lions live about 15 years. Lions live in groups called prides, which may include from several to 40 individuals. Pride mates associate in sub-groups within the pride.