Two African lion cubs, born a month ago at Nehru Zoological Park here, came out for the first time in a 'day crawl'. According to Nehru Zoological Park Curator, N.Kshitija, this is the first time that the cubs came out since their birth last month.

#WATCH Telangana: One-month-old two African lion cubs were seen playing with her mother, Adhisana, in the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad today. pic.twitter.com/UCHQJcdw2e

— ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2020

Lovely moments of the cute cubs spending time with their mother Adhisana were captured on camera by the zoo officials. One of the photographs released by the zoo authorities shows the mother licking her cub. The cubs are also seen playing with each other.

Shutdown for more than 40 days due to coronavirus-fuelled nation-wide lockdown, the zoo brought some cheers to animal lovers with the increase in the big cat population.

The Nehru Zoological Park (NZP), most popular and one of the largest zoos in the country, saw the birth of three Royal Bengal tiger cubs and two African lion cubs in the first week of April. Six jackal puppies and two Blue Gold Macaw chicks were also born.

Meanwhile, NZP officials said they were taking all precautions for the safety of the animals in the wake of the outbreak of Covid-19. It sounded an alert last month after a tiger at a New York Zoo tested positive for the dreaded virus.

The animal keepers and veterinary staff were alerted to monitor the animals, particularly tiger and primates for checking any symptoms of cold, nasal discharge or any symptoms of flu. The officials said the precautionary measures were taken up as per the instructions of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Central Zoo Authority (CZA).

The veterinary wing is continuously monitoring the health of animals and checking for any symptoms. Thermal scanning is being done of about 150 Zoo employees engaged in taking care of the animals. The Zoo authorities took several preventive prophylactic measures since the first week of March.

The NZP, which is shut since March 22, is using the services of staff animal keepers, gardeners, security and workshop staff to attend duties for providing feed to the animals, cleaning the enclosures, maintaining hygiene and sanitation, maintaining health of animals and attending emergency maintenance works and services.

Set up in 1963, the NZP is the most popular and one of the largest Zoos with an average of 27-30 lakh visitors annually. It has over 155 species and 1550 specimens in spacious enclosures.

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In a dreadful incident, five newborn leopard cubs were burnt to death after some labourers set the waste on a field on fire to kill a snake. The incident took place in farmer Gopinath Sakharam Gunge's field at Avsari village in Ambegaon area of Pune district on Wednesday. The labourers were at the last stage of chopping down the harvest.

Watch video: Leopard rescued from 25-feet deep well in Maharashtra

Vivek Khandekar, the chief conservator of forests, said, "The incident happened around 5 am on Wednesday in Junnar belt of the district. The labourers, who were cutting the harvest, came across a snake and planned to burn the waste material on the farm to kill it.

Also Read: Mumbai: Lounging leopard gives Marol residents a fright

A female leopard, who was looking after the cubs, managed to save her life. However, the cubs died along with the snake." He added, "There are chances that the female leopard will now get aggressive following the death of her five cubs, including three female and two male cubs, born around 10 to 15 days back. We have kept cages near the field to trap the big cat to avoid further chaos." The forest department officials said they are in the process of filing the FIR and are awaiting the post-mortem reports of the cubs and the snake.

Also Read: Decomposed body of leopard found at Sanjay Gandhi National Park

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