Paradise Valley Springs Paradise Valley Springs Lion Pride

[Joe Franklin]

Anybody know what the plan is for the pride of lions at Rotorua's Paradise Valley Springs ?. Size of the Pride ? Weather they are still Breeding ?.

 

[Zoofan15]

They currently have 2.5 lions. They last bred in 2013 and I don't believe they plan to breed in the immediate future.

All their lions are closely related:

Luca (2004) is the mother of Hana (2007), Ayla (2012) and Aleekah (2012)

Hana (2007) is the mother of Benji (2011), Bella (2011) and Xander (2013)

Paradise Valley Park - African Lions

Paradise Valley Park have recently updated their website with info on their lions:

The Pride of Paradise | Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park

Luca (F)

Born 20th October 2004.

Luca is our oldest lioness.

She is the lightest in colour of all of our lions.

Luca is mum to Hana and also to littermates Ayla and Aleekah.

She gave birth to Hana at two years old, which is quite young as lions normally breed from around three or four years old. Not only did she successfully raise Hana, but she also took on and raised another cub Ben who was born a few days prior to Hana after his mother Ryo's milk dried up, which was common for her.

Hana (F)

Born 5th March 2007.

Hana is currently our most dominant lioness at Paradise.

Her coat colour is very dark.

Hana is a very good mother, and is mum to littermates Benji and Bella, as well as our youngest male Xander. Lionesses will usually feed their cubs for 6-12 months, but Hana feeds and cares for hers for a lot longer. Like most mothers she has a close relationship with her adult offspring.

Benji (M)

Born 2nd August 2011.

Benji is one of our best looking male lions.

Nicknamed Ben Junior, he is named after his father Ben who left the park before he was born.

Benji mostly has a placid and gentle nature, and is one of the only males that will hardly ever growl while being handfed.

Being a male lion, the lionesses generally show him respect and get out of his way at feeding times. The only one who is not afraid to push the limits with him is his littermate Bella, which she does regularly and much to Benji's dismay. Littermates always have a tight-knit relationship throughout their lives and Benji and Bella are very close.

Bella (F)

Born 2nd August 2011.

Bella is our most confident lion.

She is very similar in looks to her mother Hana, but is a lot chubbier as she absolutely loves her food.

Being confident, she is not afraid to get in amongst the males at feeding times. She is always the first to find, claim and defend any new enrichment items. Bella is one of the only lions we've ever had that will eat pork, albeit reluctantly.

Unusually for a lioness, Bella can get quite grumpy at times and sometimes has a short fuse. She has been known to growl at visitors if they have annoyed her - for example if someone is standing in her line of sight when she is eyeing up a small child or something else of interest.

Ayla (F)

Born 21st February 2012.

Ayla is our smallest lioness.

She is a real sweetheart and has a lovely relaxed nature.

She doesn't like conflict, and although she is confident, she tends to stay away from any aggression at feeding time. For this reason you will notice she doesn't have many scars on her face.

The rare times that Ayla is ever aggressive is when she is really hungry. Normally a placid and quiet lioness, she will fight off any lions that come anywhere near her during this time, including the males, and they all know to keep well away if she is grumpy.

Aleekah (F)

Born 21st February 2012.

Aleekah is a quite a dominant lioness.

She has always had a very close relationship with her mother Luca, much more so than her sister Ayla.

She does not get on with older sister Hana at all. Aleekah started challenging Hana for her place in the pride hierarchy when she was only two years old, which Hana opposed, and the two have never gotten along since.

Xander (M)

Born 20th September 2013.

Xander is currently our youngest lion, and he was the most recent cub born at Paradise.

He may be the 'baby' of the pride, but Xander is actually the largest lion at Paradise at around 200kg. As with most male lions he is aggressive around food and due to his large size some of the lionesses are more wary of him than the other males, but he is mostly a big softy.

He gets on extremely well with older half-brother Benji and they spend most of their time with each other, and Xander actually pines for him when they aren't together.

 

[Joe Franklin]

It seems to have missed everybody attention (even me), but Paradise Valley Springs has announced that their pride has expanded by 2. Not much information has been provided regarding the cubs. According to their Facebook page -

2nd of June “We are so excited to announce our brand-new LION CUBS. Thursday the 3rd and Friday the 4th of June, they will make their first appearances to the public following our 2:30pm Adult Lion Feeding. We will be doing 10.00am AND 2:30pm ADULT LION FEEDING this weekend the 5th, 6th, and 7th of June as a Queen’s Birthday Special with appearances from our Cubs following both feedings. Please stay tuned on our social media for updates about the Cubs and their regular patting times in the near future!

9th of June “Our Cubs had a great time meeting everyone over the long weekend! They will be coming out for patting every day following our adult Lion Feeding at 2:30pm from now on stay tuned to our posts for more patting times in the future!

Even though Paradise Valley is not an accredited ZAA member (not 100% sure on this) it's still great for the New Zealand lion population, given the loss of Auckland and Wellingtons prides earlier in the year.

They seem to be offering a cub patting experience for visitors to pay to stroke the cubs. Whats everybody's thoughts on this ?.

 

[Zoofan15]

It seems to have missed everybody attention (even me), but Paradise Valley Springs has announced that their pride has expanded by 2. Not much information has been provided regarding the cubs. According to their Facebook page -

2nd of June “We are so excited to announce our brand-new LION CUBS. Thursday the 3rd and Friday the 4th of June, they will make their first appearances to the public following our 2:30pm Adult Lion Feeding. We will be doing 10.00am AND 2:30pm ADULT LION FEEDING this weekend the 5th, 6th, and 7th of June as a Queen’s Birthday Special with appearances from our Cubs following both feedings. Please stay tuned on our social media for updates about the Cubs and their regular patting times in the near future!

9th of June “Our Cubs had a great time meeting everyone over the long weekend! They will be coming out for patting every day following our adult Lion Feeding at 2:30pm from now on stay tuned to our posts for more patting times in the future!

Even though Paradise Valley is not an accredited ZAA member (not 100% sure on this) it's still great for the New Zealand lion population, given the loss of Auckland and Wellingtons prides earlier in the year.

They seem to be offering a cub patting experience for visitors to pay to stroke the cubs. Whats everybody's thoughts on this ?.


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I’m guessing the mother is Aleeka, as she’s one of the two youngest lionesses (born 2012) and is well placed in the hierarchy (second only to her elderly mother).

The lengthy gap since the last litter eight years ago made me wonder if they were phasing out the pride due to it being so inbred. It’s a shame Paradise Valley couldn’t have swapped their two males for an unrelated male from Zion Wildlife Park; or at least loaned one for breeding.

 

[Matt_C]

We visited Paradise Valley Springs today and there have been some changes with their pride.

Three (1.2) lions were transfered around Xmas to pouākai zoo to replace the pride they recently lost to old age.

There are now four (1.3) lions in the main pride at PVS with two (1.1) cubs which will move in with the main pride in a couple of months.

The keeper also suggested they were interested in continuing breeding though that might have just been part of the talk.

Otherwise the park is looking good. We managed to spot a white trout which I hadn't seen before there. They still have emu, dama wallaby, tahr and a range of native and farmyard species.

 

[Zoofan15]

We visited Paradise Valley Springs today and there have been some changes with their pride.

Three (1.2) lions were transfered around Xmas to pouākai zoo to replace the pride they recently lost to old age.

There are now four (1.3) lions in the main pride at PVS with two (1.1) cubs which will move in with the main pride in a couple of months.

The keeper also suggested they were interested in continuing breeding though that might have just been part of the talk.

Otherwise the park is looking good. We managed to spot a white trout which I hadn't seen before there. They still have emu, dama wallaby, tahr and a range of native and farmyard species.

View attachment 527526 View attachment 527527

Thanks for the update, @Matt_C.

The 1.2 transferred to Pouakai Zoo were:

1.0 Benji (02/08/2011) Ben x Hana
0.1 Ayla (21/02/2012) Max x Luca
0.1 Aleeka (21/02/2012) Max x Luca

This leaves them with 2.4 lions:

0.1 Luca (20/10/2004) Max x Ryo
0.1 Hana (05/03/2007) Zac x Luca
0.1 Bella (02/08/2011) Ben x Hana
1.0 Xander (20/09/2013) Max x Hana
1.0 Seb (01/05/2021) Xander x Bella
0.1 Sacha (01/05/2021) Xander x Bella

Given they’ve transferred three adults and Luca is getting on in years, I believe they’ll breed with Bella again within the next year, while she’s still of reproductive age.

The pride has been subject to several generations of inbreeding and things aren’t about to get any better considering Xander and Bella (the parents of the new litter) are their only breeding lions.

 

[WhistlingKite24]

Two lion cubs were born on 18th December 2022: Lion Cubs | Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park

 

[WhistlingKite24]

Two lion cubs were born on 4th November 2024 - reported on their Facebook page.

 

[Zoofan15]

Lion Pride Updates

This leaves them with 2.4 lions:

0.1 Luca (20/10/2004) Max x Ryo
0.1 Hana (05/03/2007) Zac x Luca
0.1 Bella (02/08/2011) Ben x Hana
1.0 Xander (20/09/2013) Max x Hana
1.0 Seb (01/05/2021) Xander x Bella
0.1 Sacha (01/05/2021) Xander x Bella

Hana has died.

Seb and Sacha have transferred to Poukai Zoo.

Two lion cubs were born on 18th December 2022: Lion Cubs | Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park

These cubs were sexed as 1.1 and named Fletcher and Freya.

Two lion cubs were born on 4th November 2024 - reported on their Facebook page.

These cubs have been sexed as 1.1 and remain unnamed.

————————————————

The current pride is therefore:

0.1 Luca (20/10/2004) Max x Ryo
0.1 Bella (02/08/2011) Ben x Hana
1.0 Xander (20/09/2013) Max x Hana
1.0 Fletcher (18/12/2022) Xander x Bella
0.1 Freyja (18/12/2022) Xander x Bella
1.0 Unnamed (04/11/2024) Xander x Bella
0.1 Unnamed (04/11/2024) Xander x Bella

 

[driftaguy]

Lion Pride Updates


Hana has died.

Seb and Sacha have transferred to Poukai Zoo.


These cubs were sexed as 1.1 and named Fletcher and Freya.

These cubs have been sexed as 1.1 and remain unnamed.

————————————————

The current pride is therefore:

0.1 Luca (20/10/2004) Max x Ryo
0.1 Bella (02/08/2011) Ben x Hana
1.0 Xander (20/09/2013) Max x Hana
1.0 Fletcher (18/12/2022) Xander x Bella
0.1 Freyja (18/12/2022) Xander x Bella
1.0 Unnamed (04/11/2024) Xander x Bella
0.1 Unnamed (04/11/2024) Xander x Bella

So they are inbreeding?

 

[Zoofan15]

So they are inbreeding?

Yes. This is the history of their current pride:

The founders were Leo, Sheba and Cleo.

Leo bred with Sheba and Cleo to produce full sisters Suzy (1986) and Honey (1988); and their half brother Sam (1988).

Sam and Suzy produced Jake (1994) and Ryo (1995).

Jake bred with Honey to produce Max (2000).

Jake bred with Ryo to produce Zac (2001).

Max and Ryo produced Luca (2004) and Ben (2007).

Zac and Luca produced Hana (2007).

Ben and Hana produced Bella (2011).

Max and Hanna produced Xander (2013).

Xander and Bella produced Fletcher (2022), Freyja (2022) and the Unnamed Twins (2024).