Lioness kills father of his three cubs at Indianapolis Zoo

A lioness killed the father of his three children, choking on his mate by hugging his neck at the Indianapolis Zoo in an attack that the zoo staff did not quite understand.

The lions have been united at the zoo for eight years and have produced three cubs in 2015, and zookeepers have never noticed any aggression between the two, the zoo said in a statement released on Friday.

Death has devastated the zoo keepers and the cause could never be understood, said the zoo's curator.

"They are forging close relationships with animals and any loss affects us all.For many of us, it 's like a family member," said David Hagan, curator of the zoo. Indianapolis.

The zoo staff was alerted by "an unusual amount of roar" from the lion's pen on October 15 and arrived in search of 12-year-old lioness Zuri in a fight with the male Nyack lion 10 years said in a statement.

"She was holding Nyack by the neck, the guards came to see what was going on and tried to separate the two, but she continued to hang on to Nyack until he stopped." move, "said Hagan.

A necropsy revealed that Nyack had died of suffocation as a result of a neck injury.

The lioness had been loaned by the San Diego Zoo as part of the species survival plan run by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

The incident was under consideration but there were no plans to change the way lions would be managed, the zoo said.

One of their offspring, a 3-year-old woman named Sukari, was at the time in a lion pen, while the two male offspring were kept in a separate part of the exhibit.

Zoo keepers began separating men earlier this year, which corresponds to the age at which they usually leave pride, at 2 or 3 years old, when they are considered young adults, Hagan said.