The lion Subali is dead. The cat of prey was put to sleep in Nuremberg Zoo at the age of 15, a city spokesman said on Monday. Subali was decrepit, lost weight, and could hardly walk on Sunday. « He died without fear or pain, » it said.
Lion Subali made headlines throughout Germany last year: in Nuremberg, he lived with the now five-year-old lioness Arany. The two should have cubs, the genetic combination of the two would have been valued according to Tiergarten.
However, the hoped-for offspring of the animals from the subspecies of the Asiatic lions did not materialize. Since there is only room for two lions in Nuremberg, there was a discussion about euthanizing Subali because of his possible inability to conceive.
In the debate that followed, there were sometimes indignant voices, especially from animal rights activists. Subali was actually put to sleep on Sunday, for veterinary reasons, as the zoo emphasized. The lion and his partner Aarany were left without offspring.
Attempts to spatially separate the two from each other in order to increase the desire were unsuccessful. Subali has shown clear signs of age-related problems in recent weeks. This was shown by pain in the musculoskeletal system and poor feed intake.
In the last days of its life, the keepers hand-fed the lion through the grate and provided it with medication – the animal trusted its keepers that much.
On Sunday around noon, however, the animal was barely able to walk, and within a few hours, it was  » weakened » and put to sleep under deep anesthesia.
There is already talk of a possible successor alongside the lioness Aarany: the studbook coordinator was asked to choose a new partner, the zoo announced. Lions are social big cats that should not live alone for long.
According to the zoo, the only population of the Asiatic lion subspecies outside of zoos is in India’s Gir National Park, where 630 animals lived according to an estimate in 2017.
The zoo populations in Asia, Europe, and the USA are essential for the survival probability of the subspecies.
