I remember visiting those boys back when I went to Taronga Western Plains Zoo, and were delighted to see them again at Sydney Zoo with one of them becoming Sydney Zoo's first king.
@Tam Skylonobi It was certainly a surprise to see a litter of all male quadruplets. A split between males and females is far more common, though I’ve also seen all female quadruplets. I imagine Sheru was the second highest ranking of his litter. His mane on arrival didn’t look as developed as the male on the left in this photo - and while they wanted a dominant lion to rule the lionesses, removing the second most dominant of the four brothers wouldn’t have led to fighting to restablish the hierarchy e.g. the alpha would remain the alpha.
@Tam Skylonobi I don’t know sorry. I was just stating the male on the left of that photo is clearly the alpha. His mane looks slightly more impressive than Sheru’s; and much more impressive than his brothers on the right.
I've just taken a look at the photos during my trip to Sydney Zoo of the signs of the lions which showed the lion brothers, despite Virunga, being the biggest of the 4 brothers, it is stated that Karoo is the one with the darkest mane out of all of his brothers and that his mane extends to his forelegs. If it is the mane colour and not size of the lion, this might make Karoo the dominant of the 4 brothers
@Tam Skylonobi That’s possible. The dominant lion isn’t always the largest lion, though size is an advantage. I’ve known pairings where the larger lion is more docile than a small, but more aggressive littermate or half brother and therefore subordinate. This was the case with Zulu and Malik, who were sired by Lazarus (father of Sydney’s males) at Auckland Zoo; and also with two half brothers (Max and Zac) at Paradise Valley Springs.
