May 14--"Stewardess" is out. "Actress" is fading. But "lioness" lives on, apparently -- and especially so now at Lincoln Park Zoo, which displayed two new female lions for the first time Wednesday. Zalika and Kamali are year-and-a-half-year-old lioness sisters moved to the North Side zoo from Oregon Zoo at the behest of the inter-zoo Species Survival Plan, which works to manage captive populations.
Translated, that means zookeepers want the females and Sahar, Lincoln Park's 5-year-old male, to do what man and lady lions do, if the SSP next issues a recommendation to breed.
"Over the past couple weeks, we have introduced the lions both via scent and visually and in the coming weeks we will physically introduce the three lions who will share the indoor and outdoor exhibit space," curator of mammals Mark Kamhout said, in a zoo statement. The new arrivals weigh about 160 pounds, according to the statement -- which is a fact of biology, not sexism.
In addition to work in Chicago, zoo scientists work to conserve African lions, classified as vulnerable, through the Serengeti Health Initiative, a dog vaccination program in Tanzania that protects other animals from exposure to disease.
"Not only are these lionesses a great addition to Lincoln Park Zoo, but they also serve as ambassadors for the imperative conservation work the zoo is conducting in native lion habitats in Africa," Kamhout said.
