INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Zoo announced Friday that its male lion was killed earlier this week by a lioness in their outdoor yard. Nyack, a 10-year-old male African lion, died Monday when he was attacked by Zuri, an adult female, before the zoo opened for the day. Our Zoo family is sad to announce that 10-yr-old male African lion Nyack has died. Earlier this week he was injured... Posted by Indianapolis Zoo on Friday, October 19, 2018 Nyack and Zuri had been housed together for eight years, and produced a litter of three cubs in 2015. Staff said there were no prior instances of unusual aggression, CBS affiliate WTTV in Indianapolis reported. Staff said they made every effort to separate the lions, but that Zuri held Nyack by the neck until he stopped moving. A necropsy, or animal version of an autopsy, showed Nyack’s cause of death was suffocation, the station reported.<doc-sep>Wild male lions will also typically chase off any male cubs when they grow up to ensure they are alone with the pride lionesses. Sometimes the lions will kill cubs - usually when they take over new territory from another pride - to stake their claim on the females.<doc-sep>An incident at the Indianapolis Zoo when a lioness killed the father of her three offspring is extremely rare, wildlife experts said Monday. "There is not a case of this within recent memory where we've seen a lioness attack her mate," said Hollie Colahan, a lion Species Survival Plan coordinator for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a nonprofit organization in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. "We've had a very small number of incidents of male-on-male or female-on-female, but for an incident to arise from a female attacking a male is very unusual," Colahan said. The zoo said in a statement on Friday that Nyack, a 10-year-old male African lion, had died after staff found him held in a tight grip by Zuri, a 12-year-old female, hours before the zoo opened last Monday. The two big felines had been together in the same habitat for eight years, breeding three cubs in 2015. The lioness had been on loan from the Denver Zoo and the male from the San Diego Zoo as part of the Species Survival Plan managed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. "We consider this to be very rare," said David Hagan, a curator for the Indianapolis Zoo. "It was a total shock to the animal care team." The staff began to reach out to wildlife researchers and experts on lion behavior immediately after the incident to try to make sense of the rare occurrence. Craig Packer, head of the Lion Center at the University of Minnesota, was one of their first calls. "What I understand from the zoo is that this was a very unusual male and an unusual female," Packer said in an interview on Monday. "The male was very weak and submissive, and the female was very dominant of the male." Zuri, a lioness at the Indianapolis Zoo, was considered the dominant member of the pair of lions, which had been together for eight years. Reuters file "It's almost as if [the male lion] was just too wimpy, like some sort of metrosexual, and he didn't live up to the macho standard of male lion behavior," he said. Other experts said certain normal standards of lion behavior could also explain the incident. Anna Moser, a researcher on wildlife ecology and animal behavior at the University of Minnesota, said a possible clue might have been the proximity of the two lions for such a long time. Male and female lions "don't really participate in raising their offspring together. They're not bonded like other animals, and the males only stay for about the two years of the cubs' lives," Moser said. "The female tends to stay with the offspring, and the males go off and join other prides." Zuri's and Nyack's offspring — two males, named Enzi and Mishaka, and a female, named Sukari — are considered young adults by the wildlife standards because they are 3 years old. Paul Funston, the Southern Africa regional director for Panthera, an international wildcat conservation organization, said this incident would have been rare in the wild, where a male lion would have had the opportunity to leave after the cubs turned 2. "This is something you almost never see," Funston said. "I think this is sort of a freak incident, associated with the fact that lions are kept in captivity." Even with various likely theories, zoo staffers and other experts agreed that they may never know what caused the incident. "The key thing to remember is that there is nobody to blame for this, because this kind of incident has never been observed before," Packer said. The Indianapolis Zoo remains open, and an investigation remains underway. "Currently at this time, we continue to take in information to determine to see what our next steps will be, and we are working with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to develop best practices," Hagan said. "It is too early to say what those changes may be."<doc-sep>The Indianapolis Zoo says a lion on loan from the San Diego Zoo has died in a fight with another lion. The zoo said Friday that an adult female, Zuri, attacked 10-year-old male Nyack in their outdoor yard Monday before the zoo opened for the day. The zoo says the two had been housed together for eight years and produced three cubs in 2015. Nyack was on loan from the San Diego Zoo. Advertisement The zoo said staff heard an unusual amount of roaring from the yard and staff tried to separate the two but Zuri held Nyack by the neck until he stopped moving. A necropsy confirmed that Nyack died of suffocation from injuries to his neck. The zoo said daily logs kept by staff showed no unusual aggression, injuries or wounds between the two. The zoo says Nyack “was a magnificent lion and he will be greatly missed.” Business<doc-sep>
The Indianapolis Zoo is reviewing the incident, but, so far, has found no evidence of previous aggressive behavior between Nyack and his mate Zuri Indianapolis Zoo Staff Heartbroken After Lioness Kills Her Mate: "It's Like the Loss of a Family Member" It was a tragic weekend for the Indianapolis Zoo. The facility is mourning the loss of its 10-year-old male lion Nyack. On Friday, the zoo announced on Facebook that the animal died earlier in the week after being “injured during a physical incident with female lion Zuri.” Zuri was Nyack’s mate; three years ago the pair had three cubs together. According to a press release from the zoo about the heartbreaking incident, Nyack died on Monday morning in the outdoor yard of his exhibit, which he shared with Zuri and their daughter Sukari. Animal care staff at the zoo became aware something was wrong when they heard “an unusual amount of roaring” from the yard. Keepers found Zuri acting aggressively toward Nyack, biting the male lion on the neck. lion-1 Credit: Courtesy Indianapolis Zoo “Zoo personnel made every effort to separate the lions but Zuri held Nyack by the neck until he stopped moving,” reads the release from the zoo. Sukari was also in the yard at the time of the incident, but was not involved. The zoo performed a necropsy on Nyack and confirmed it was suffocation from injuries to the neck that killed the lion. The incident is now being throughly reviewed by the zoo to find out what led to Zuri’s behavior. “Right now there is nothing new as far as review of the incident. I will say that for us, it’s like the loss of a family member, so we have a lot of heartbroken people right now. We are working to support each other and care for the animals we love,” a spokesperson from the Indianapolis Zoo told PEOPLE. Nyack and Zuri had peacefully cohabited for eight years. Daily logs kept by the lion’s caretakers show no notes of aggressive behavior between the a pair, or any injuries. The zoo has no current plans to change how their remaining lions are currently housed. Zuri lives in an exhibit with her daughter Sukari. The lioness’ two sons live in another enclosure. According to the zoo’s spokesperson, once male lions reach adulthood, they are kept apart from their mother and female siblings, so it has been some time since Zuri and her sons have shared the same space. lion-2 Credit: Courtesy Indianapolis Zoo While the review of the incident continues, the zoo is focusing on remembering and honoring Nyack.