Two 5-month-old African lion cubs at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park got a snoot full of new scents Thursday, along with some toys.
Ken and Dixie frollicked around their habitat Thursday morning, playing with gourds and clawing paper bags filled with wood shavings. Zoo staffers also sprayed unusual scents for the cubs to sniff out.
"The gourds were a great hit," senior keeper Amy Whidden-Winter said. "Dixie loves to chase them and it brings out that predator-prey reaction in her. It rolls and she gets to pounce on it, and then Ken gets to pounce on her and they get to tumble and play like good brothers and sisters should."
The cubs, born to Oshana on Dec. 6, initially were kept in a nursery playpen, but recently have been spending most of their mornings in the lion habitat. They usually are in the habitat from about 9 a.m. until noon, when animal care staff members take them inside and let the park's three adult lions out, according to the zoo.
