A lion has been given a vasectomy after his Dutch keepers decided he had produced enough cubs.
Eleven-year-old Thor was given the procedure on Thursday at a zoo in the Netherlands after impregnating two lionesses and fathering five cubs last year.
One lioness gave birth to twins while the other had triplets, staff at Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem told Reuters.
The World Wildlife Fund say the population of lions have decreased by 30-50 per cent in the past 50 years, however vet Henk Luten, who performed the surgery, said the zoo now had enough of Thor’s DNA.
"We have a lot of offspring and we don’t want to have him overpopulating the genetic pool," he told the news agency.
Mr Luten added that it was the first time in his career at the zoo that he had carried out the procedure on a lion.
"It’s the first time in the 35 years that I’ve been a veterinarian here that I have done this operation on a lion," he said.
Staff at the zoo said they chose to carry out a vasectomy instead of castration because it could have caused Thor to lose his mane, along with his standing in the pride’s social hierarchy as a dominant male.
