A lion cub is born at Space Farms Zoo in Sussex

WANTAGE -- At the Sussex County zoo that was once home to the world's largest bear, the latest attraction is a 25-pound ball of feline fur named Siren.

The 10-week-old African lion cub was recently born at Space Farms Zoo & Museum in Wantage, which opened today for the season.

Currently the size of a large housecat, the cub looks like a plush toy come-to-life, but her constant pacing, piercing glare and menacing growls reveal her true nature.

The family-owned zoo has had lions for nearly 40 years. But because cub births only occur occasionally, the arrival of a new lion gives Space Farms something to crow about. Siren is the zoo’s fifth-generation of Atlas lions, also known as Barbary lions, which are extinct in the wild.

"We haven’t had a lion cub since 2002, so that’s why it’s a special occasion," said zoologist Lori Space Day. "We don’t breed them. They do what they want to do. Nature takes it course."

The last cub born here was Siren’s father, 8-year-old Attila, who is the current king of the zoo — aside from zoo patriarch Fred Space, Lori’s 81-year-old father who still helps run the place.

Long lineage here is nothing new. Lori is a third-generation family member at the zoo founded in 1927 as a general store and wild-animal shelter by her grandparents Ralph and Elizabeth Space. The zoo became home to Goliath, the Guinness World Record largest bear in the world at 2,000 pounds and 12 feet tall, who lived there from 1967 to 1991. The zoo also holds life longevity records for bobcat (33 years), jaguar (21 years) and puma (22 years).

The zoo had only North American animals until 1971, when Fred Space took in an old circus lion as a temporary boarder. But after the owner never bothered to come back for that cat, named Leo, it was permanently adopted and became the zoo’s first exotic animal. In 1974, Leo sired a cub named Moses, who years later begat a cub dubbed Moses II. In 1998, Moses II fathered Solomon, and in 2002 Solomon’s offspring, Attila, was born.

And now comes Siren.

Three pounds at birth, Siren was the size of a sneaker but now is more than 2-feet long, with 3-inch-wide paws and inch-long canine teeth. A male cub sibling also was born but has been adopted out to another zoo, while their mother died from complications during the births.

Siren is fattening up on a bottle-fed formula of 42 percent protein and 25-percent fat, and also noshes on venison.

Like the other big cats at the zoo, "She eats Sussex County’s best (deer) roadkill," Space Day said. During a recent bottle-feeding, the cub occasionally nipped at Space Day’s hand. "They are cute, but you can see they are dangerous."

Siren will be kept separate from father and grandmother until the fall, when she has grown to the size of a large dog and will join her forebearers in their pen. Attila has a massive head, a lush black mane and paws the size of dinner plates. His mother, a 20-year-old lioness (about 80 in human years) named "3 o’clock" for a marking on her face, share quarters next to a pair of equally magnificent tigers.

The cubs were a welcome surprise, noted the zoo’s veterinarian, Ted Spinks of Animal Hospital of Sussex County.

"We didn’t expect it," Spinks said. "The lion is the top of the food chain, so when you get a lion born there, it’s pretty cool."

For more information on the zoo, see www.spacefarms.com.