Lion Kills Heron at Amsterdam Zoo in Front of Shocked Onlookers (VIDEO)
A video showing a group of lions killing a heron at a zoo in Amsterdam has garnered more than a million views on YouTube.
The video was reportedly taken by a group of Dutch tourists visiting the Artis Royal Zoo in Amsterdam.
The amateur video shows a blue heron landing inside the lion's pen next to a small pool. One of the lionesses alerted to the intruder quickly sneaks up on the unsuspecting bird and grabs the bird out of the air as it tries to fly away. The other lions then begin to circle the catch before they devour the small bird.
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"This Dutch family was visiting the zoo on a quiet Sunday afternoon when things got a bit more exciting than seeing bored animals lying around their enclosures. A lion spots a heron near the water. Following her instincts she sneaks up on it and manages to grab it. The whole family wants in on the prize, but a sneaky cub gets away with it," reads a description on YouTube.
The website HyperVocal had reported that the video was actually taken last year during the summer, but that it was only uploaded to the video sharing site this week.
There was some other big news about zoos this week when a rare giraffe was born at a Connecticut animal conservatory. The female calf was born March 22 to a 6-year-old Rothschild giraffe named Petal at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center in Greenwich, according to The Greenwich Time.
The offspring, who has yet to be given an official name, stands an impressive six feet tall and is the most recent addition to the endangered giraffe subspecies.
Wildlife experts estimate that around a few hundred Rothschild giraffes are still in the wild. With so few numbers experts fear that hybridization, or the interbreeding of giraffe species, could wipe out the subspecies for good.
Marcella Leone, founder and director of LEO Zoological Conservation Center, revealed that the newborn giraffe will soon join five other giraffes in her pen and is expected to top 18 feet when she is fully grown.
British zoologist Lord Walter Rothschild discovered this species of giraffe during an expedition to East Africa in the early 1900s and made detailed observations of the animals in the wild. He noted that the giraffes have no discernible mating period and that they usually give birth to only one live calf.
