Dallas zoo lioness choked by lions

by umer | 9:16 AM in |

Dallas zoo lioness choked by lions--Dallas, TX – patrons at the lone star state’s oldest and largest zoo were stunned Monday after the lion named Carbora killed the lioness named Johari with a single powerful bite to the neck.The incident was caught on footage, but no one understands what provoked the attack.

The zoo’s vice president of animal operations and welfare, Lynn Kramer, said in her 35 years in thebusiness she’s never seen something like this happen.

“We think he just grabbed her by the throat and it was very quick,” said Kramer. “I’ve been in the zoobusiness for over 35 years. I’ve worked at five major zoos, and I’ve never seen a cat kill another cat before.”

The incident occurred before the eyes of zoo patrons who initially believed the pair of lions were engaged in some sort of playful act. However, as Carbora maintained the grip on the lioness’ neck, she began to visibly struggle and subsequently became lifeless. Johari had barely turned five years old. During her birthday celebration, she was given a frozen cake dessert and serenaded by 100 zoo employees singing “Happy Birthday”.

“You could see this lion holding the other one down,” said witness Michael Henshaw. “There was no blood, but it held her down for about 10 to 15 minutes til she was lifeless.”

“We were right there at the front of the glass,” said Dylan Parker. “It was just traumatic. You could see the larger male lion kind of attacking the smaller lioness, and they were just going at it nonstop.”

For now, Carbora has been separated from the other lions to prevent any further attacks. Questions remain about what to do with the lion, but the zoo has stated that they have no plans to euthanize the offending lion. Zoo officials have not seen arbitrary violent behavior from any of the lions in the past.