A little lion is sitting in his transport box after being freed from a vehicle after an accident on the A5 motorway near Kronau, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020. A white lion cub was discovered in the trailer of a van following a highway crash in southwestern Germany, but the 7-month-old female is doing just fine, a zoo that took in the animal said Wednesday. (Rene Priebe/pr-video/dpa via AP)
Republished September 09, 2020 - 7:36 AM
Original Publication Date September 09, 2020 - 6:41 AM
BERLIN - A white lion cub was discovered in the trailer of a van following a highway crash in southwestern Germany, but the 7-month-old female is doing just fine, a zoo that took in the animal said Wednesday.
The rare cub was found inside a box in the trailer after the van collided with two other vehicles on the A5 highway near Heidelberg on Tuesday. The van's driver and two passengers, all citizens of Slovakia, were taken to the hospital with injuries.
The lion emerged from the crash uninjured and was taken to a reptile zoo in the town of Landau, German news agency dpa reported.
“During the night, it drank milk and ate some ground beef,” Dominik Bischoff of the Reptilium zoo told dpa. The zoo's staff are calling the cub Lea.
Police said that they found documents inside the crashed van indicating that the lion was being transported from Slovakia to Barcelona in Spain. It was not yet clear if the animal transport was legal, police said.
Witnesses of the crash reported that in addition to the lion cub, there was a toucan inside the trailer which managed to escape, police said.
News from © The Associated Press, 2020