Long Lost Lion, Returned to Parents (in Minnesota)

A young lion that went missing after being sold – illegally – as a cub has been reunited with his parents after a year and a half separation. His ordeal began in Quebec, where the feline family had been separated after a roadside zoo was shut down.

Staff from the Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, Minnesota rescued nine lions from the squalid roadside operation in 2024, including a mating pair, Kim and Carl. At the time of the rescue, they’d heard the pair’s cub had been sold off. Months later, the sanctuary got a call that a male cub was in need of a home; photos and records confirmed it was their long-lost boy.

Authorities in Canada had placed the cub – now called Kiros – in an accredited zoo, which took care of him for 18 months while legal proceedings involving the roadside zoo in Quebec were being resolved.

It took a while to get all the necessary international permits approved, then the Wildcat Sanctuary sent a team more than 1000 miles to bring Kiros to his new home (and to his old family). Now safely settled at the sanctuary, Kiros is slowly getting used to a new life in a spacious natural habitat.

“From the moment we heard about the missing cub, we hoped we might one day find him,” Tammy Thies, founder and executive director of sanctuary said in a press release. “To discover that Kiros not only survived but could come to the sanctuary where his parents now live is incredibly powerful. Stories like this remind us why rescue work matters.” 

The Wildcat Sanctuary is located in the middle of Minnesota, about 100 north of Minneapolis, which might seem an unlikely place for large felines more naturally equipped for the African savannah. Still, its 205 acres of natural habitats has been home to 20 species of 355 wild cats since it opened in 1999. In December it welcomed its first snow leopard, a 13-year- old named Raj who’s not fazed at all by the Minnesota winter. 

Donate to the Wildcat Sanctuary here.

Photo credit: The Wildcat Sanctuary