I can't believe they did this (again)!

Copenhagen Zoo kills 4 lions, weeks after shooting giraffe

Two of those were young lions that were not old enough to survive by themselves and would have been killed by the new male lion if it had the chance, Bro told CNN. He said the zoo had tried to place them elsewhere, "but unfortunately there wasn't any interest."

The other two are the youngsters' parents, described by the Copenhagen Zoo as a "very old" breeding pair. The new male lion was brought from Givskud Zoo, also in Denmark, to form a breeding group with the Copenhagen Zoo's two 18-month-old females, born on site in 2012.

Terrible trend

Africa's lion population plummets by two thirds in 50 years, study finds

"Only 25 percent remains of an ecosystem that once was a third larger than the continental United States," co-author Stuart Pimm, a Duke conservation ecology professor, said in a statement issued with the study.

"The situation in West Africa is particularly dire," the experts wrote, noting that human populations have doubled there over the last three decades. Fewer than 500 lions remain in West Africa, the study estimated.

The team and a panel of lion experts used the savannah data to refine estimates of lion populations, which had ranged between 20,000 and 40,000 across Africa. Their estimate: 32,000 lions remain, down from an estimated 100,000 in 1960.

Let me have the tasty morsel!

So, this woman's baby was dressed in a striped hooded sweatshirt for a trip to the zoo and they put him down next to very thick ballistic glass. That's when a lioness went crazy for a bite. I cant' embed this video, but it's worth watching. What was the kid's response? 'Kitty, kitty.' :)

Of course, there's all sorts of people making comments about how it's child abuse and how awful it is. That's silly. Okay, maybe having a large lioness' jaw over my head might scar me for life, but the baby seems absolutely oblivious.

Apparently interesting things happen when you mix a baby dressed vaguely like a zebra, a lioness, and some thankfully thick glass. Go watch.

There's a story for the grandchildren

In midst of Ike, lion's OK: Texans ride out storm in church with zoo animal

Got that via Pauline Jones on Twitter.