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Happy birthday! | Zoo Knoxville lions turned 2 years old on Dec. 21

The lions are siblings and celebrated turning 2 years old on Thursday with treats and enrichment objects featuring new smells.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Two Zoo Knoxville lions celebrated their birthdays on Thursday with presents and treats, as well as a celebration with visitors at the zoo.

Maji, a male lion, and Anga, a female lion, are siblings. They celebrated turning 2 years old on Dec. 21, and the zoo said they were large for their age. Maji is around 250 lbs. large and Anga is around 200 lbs. large. For their birthdays, they got treats as well as enrichment toys featuring new smells.

Some of the objects included things like hay used by other animals, according to the zoo, which meant the lions could smell the other animals. The zoo said as predators, smelling other animals excites them.

"They were born here, they were our Christmas present two years ago, born right before Christmas. They had a really rough start to life. Mom had a real issue giving birth naturally, so we did have to do a cesarean and pull them," said Terry Cannon, a zookeeper.

He said the lions are now approaching adulthood, even if the zookeepers continue calling them cubs. In the wild, Cannon said the lions would be preparing to go their separate ways at their age. 

"They're closer to being teenagers in their development than they are cubs, but as with human children, they'll always be babies to us. So, we call them cubs," he said.

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