TimeOut

This lion house is where they stay when things are going on in the enclosure, such as the maintenance and brush trimming that's being done today. They also come in when they want air conditioning, as it can get very hot outside. Otherwise they are roaming around in their native environment.

I was only 3 feet away from this enormous head.

Luckily he was not interested in me.

Neither was she.

Here's what they eat:

In this photo, keeper Tony has handed me a lion "popsicle" - which is a brain-shaped mold filled with frozen blood and guts, which they give the lions to lick. Ick. Yes, I washed my hands afterwards! Most of the time the lions eat ground meat (including bones, organs, etc as if they ate a whole animal).

We went outside to join the 4 cubs, who had just been given their weekly rabbit. The rabbits are grown for the purpose and kept free from parasites or disease. 

The cubs have to learn how to dismember and disembowel their food. This guy was struggling to get the guts out without eating them.

We were pretty darn close to the lions.

Here are the three sisters. One of them took her rabbit into the shavings and wasn't happy about having to eat the wood bits along with the meat.