Amreli: The bodies of two female lion cubs have been recovered from the Eastern Gir forests in Amreli district of Gujarat where during September-October this year 23 lions of the same pride had died from deadly Canine distemper virus (CVD).

A forests officials today said that prima facie it seemed that the reason behind the death of the two lion cubs was in-fight among the big cats.

He said that the body of an around an year old cub was found in Bherala area under Chanchai round of Paniya range of the forests. It has injury marks over its body which indicated that it might have been killed in in-fight.
The body of another around 5 to 6 months old female lion cub was recovered from Nani Vadal area in Savarkundala range of the forest. It has also seemingly died in in-fight.

The bodies have been sent for post-mortem.
Notably, the bodies of three cubs from the nearby Tulsi-Shyam range were also found some time back who were killed in in-fight.

Earlier when the deaths of lions in Dalkhaniya range were noticed, the forest department had claimed in-fight to be the reason but it turned out to be deadly CD virus which had killed around 1000 lions in East Africa more than a decade ago.

DeshGujarat