Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Seeking Answers on Boston Zoo Lioness Death

Aired January 02, 2002 - 09:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A female lion at Boston's Franklin Park Zoo has been mauled to death by a male lion. Zoo keepers were trying to get the two lions adjusted to living in the same area, but something, apparently, went wrong, obviously.

Joining us now is Craig Packer. He's an animal behaviorist and director of the University of Minnesota's Serengeti Lion Project. And we hope that he will be able to give us some insight on what -- what happened here. Mr. Packer, thank you much for coming in. What do you think happened there?

CRAIG PACKER, DIR. UNIV. OF MINNESOTA SERENGETI LION PROJECT: Well, I'm not exactly sure what the details are when they did it. In the wild, male lions and female lions are very uneasy around each other when they first meet. Lions have a very stable social system, and they raise their cubs as a big family. But if the previous set of fathers has been kicked out of the pride, that's when most new males are introduced to their new wives, as it were. In those cases, these new males don't tolerate being stepfathers, and they try to get rid of the youngsters that are present in the pride already.

In that case, the female's very nervous about any strange males that come into their area. And then lions are generally pretty uneasy around each other because they can so easily damage each other.

HARRIS: We have seen sort of scenes like that on "National Geographic" specials from time to time.

PACKER: Yeah.

HARRIS: But is this -- this is not a common incidence, is it? I mean, I can't remember seeing many reports of lions killing each other in zoos across the country.

PACKER: No. I'm curious to know exactly what was different about the details of this. I think it may just be one of those things that happens every now and then, and this is the unlucky situation where it happened in their backyard.

HARRIS: Well, it's drawing some extra scrutiny because that zoo has been -- has been the source of a few other stories of bad things happening to animals that have been in their care there. Are you concerned at all that this may be part of a pattern there at the zoo? PACKER: It's difficult to tell. I mean, I think there needs to be a general awareness that these animals have a very complex life in their ordinary, natural world. And that if the, kind of, background of their natural lives is not really respected in these situations, that something might seriously go wrong.

In a case like this, in the wild ,when people are trying to bring new lions together, they're very, very cautious about it. The animals have a lot of space to be able to avoid each other at first, until they get used to each other. And that's an inherent problem in any zoo situation, where the two newcomers are kept in a very confined space. And if one of them behaves in an inappropriate manner. It sounds like the female may have panicked when she saw this male coming in. The male's instinct, then, is just to sort of stop whatever is upsetting to him.

HARRIS: Yeah. Well we also heard that the -- that the introduction of this new lion's scent was actually made and that was supposed to try to, I guess, to get the process of getting these two lions acquainted earlier.

PACKER: Well, that was a one-way decision. I mean, it sounds like they gave the female scent to the male, and didn't tell the male how she was going to behave when he first saw her. And, of course, the female might not have had any idea what was coming. So it would have been very startling to her and very upsetting.

HARRIS: Well, that is -- it's an upsetting story. And it's one that we'll have to follow from here on out. Craig Packer, thank you very much and Happy New Year to you.

PACKER: You too, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com