(Photo Credit: Bjarn Saderqvist/Flickr)

It's not exactly the circle of life.

Four lions, including two cubs, were killed to make room for a new male lion in the Danish zoo that last month drew outrage for killing a healthy giraffe, the Copenhagen Zoo announced today.

The lions were euthanized for not being able to defend themselves against the new male lion, zoo officials said.

"Due to the lion flock's natural structure and behavior, the zoo had to kill the two old lions and two young lions who were not old enough to fend for themselves and also would have been killed by the new male lion as soon as he got the chance," the zoo said in an otherwise cheery statement about the new lion.

The zoo killed a 2-year-old giraffe last month and fed its remains to the now-dead lions.