Two tiny roars in Edinburgh: Asiatic lion cubs arrive for the first time in seven years

Edinburgh Zoo has two very small, very important new residents. First-time mother Bindee, a 10-year-old Asiatic lion, gave birth to two cubs on 11 October — the zoo's first lion cubs in seven years — while keepers watched proudly through live cameras in her den. Father Jay, 15, is, in team leader Alison MacLean's words, 'his usual chilled-out self', while Bindee is 'happily bonding with the little cubs'. Asiatic lions survive in the wild only in India's Gir Forest, so every cub born into the European breeding programme matters. The family will stay away from visitors for their first months, in a closed and quiet habitat, while the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland team keeps watch.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program