JUST DESERTS

Man Gets Mauled by Zoo Lion While Trying to Steal Her Cubs

The cubs have white coats due to a rare recessive trait.

Accra Zoo officials in Ghana are in shock after a man attempted to climb into a lion enclosure in an alleged attempt to steal a pair of lion cubs—but got ripped apart by the lionness instead. The middle-aged man scaled two fences, one 10-feet tall and the other 20-feet tall, to approach the family of big cats, according to the BBC. Police are currently investigating the incident. Officials suspect that the man may have been after the cubs due to a rare recessive trait they both have that gives them white coats. That color is exceedingly rare in the wild, making the pair just two out of a dozen or so lions that exist in the world, according to the Global White Lion Protection Trust. “The lions have cubs so if you come too close they may feel you are trying to take away their babies,” Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Benito Owusu Bio said in a statement. “We ask the public to desist from doing anything like this.”