Special treat for lioness Tycia at Łódz Zoo

The zoo in Łódz helped Tycia the lioness celebrate her 10th birthday on Monday (September 7th) in a special way. For this special occasion, zoo staff presented Tycia with a cardboard giraffe filled with meat. The cat did not appear too sure about her gift when she approached it, but happily dug into it after.

Tycia was born on 7th September 2005 at the municipal zoo in Łódz as the last offspring of Bruno and Luei. The lioness was abandoned by her mother after 25 days and zoo staff started to take care of her. As the cat was very lively and employees could not meet her demand of attention, they came up with the idea to introduce Tycia to a female shepherd – says Małgorzata Pacholczyk, Head of predators department who was also present when the lioness was born. The inter-species friendship, however, could not continue indefinitely. Fearing for the safety of the dog and that the lioness might take on too much of dog habits, Tycia was returned to the lion paddock after a couple of months.

Asian lions are one of the flagship animals of the Łódz garden. Łódz zoo was the first in Poland to house this species. Previous 16 offspring of Bruno and Luei were given to zoos in, among others, Jerusalem (Israel), Prague (Czech Republic), Tallinn (Estonia) and Jerez (Spain).