desymbol: Elderly Lion Couple Euthanized At The Same Time So Neither Has To Live Alone

Last Thursday, the Los Angeles Zoo announced that animal care and health staff had made the difficult decision to put to sleep two of their lions at the same time. 21-year-old soulmates Hubert and Kalisa were euthanized “due to their declining health and age-related illnesses that had diminished their quality of life.”

Hubert was born in Chicago, at Lincoln Park Zoo, and Kalisa came from Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, and they met after they were transferred to Los Angeles Zoo in 2014. Since then, they had been completely inseparable from one another.

Image credits: Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens

On average, lions that live in captivity make it to the age of 25 years, while the life expectancy of a lion living in the wild is about 12-16 years of age.

Image credits: Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens

LA Zoo spokesman Beth Schaefer told the Los Angeles Times that the lions’ bond was evident even to visitors. “These lions were charismatic both together as partners and separately, but they were hardly ever apart from one another,” she said. “Their undivided attention was always on the other as they rested together, cuddled and nuzzled often.”

Image credits: Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens

Even though Hubert fathered 10 cubs over his life, he and Kalisa did not have any together.

“This is a very hard loss for our zoo community,” Alisa Behar, the zoo’s curator of mammals, said in a statement. “In the early mornings, staff would routinely hear Hubert’s waking roars, and I will personally miss hearing them on my walks around the grounds. You cannot think of Hubert without thinking of his companion, Kalisa; they’ve been an inseparable couple for years.”