Three lion cubs and a giraffe calf make their first appearance at Dubbo's Taronga Western Plains Zoo

The new cubs were born in early April to first time parents Marion and Lwazi. Both parents arrived from the United States in 2018 and 2021. Lwazi was first paired with Evelyn, but took a keen interest in her sister, Marion, introducing a new genetic line.

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The three sisters are the first litter to be born at the zoo since 2016.

The cubs remained with their mother a few weeks after their birth and have also been vaccinated. They were gradually introduced to their father, behind the scenes, before the family could be together in public.

"Three little girls. They're full of life. They're all definitely different personalities," lion supervisor Justine Powell said. "Very cute and very wild."

The sisters are called Cub A, B, and C, and do not have names yet. Two cubs will be named by lion keepers and Taronga Foundation supporters. A naming competition by zoo, decided by a public vote, will find a name for the third cub.

Ms Powell, who had been engaging with lions for more than two decades, said the breeding program was a great "backup" because lions were disappearing in the wild.

"Just like a lot of the animals, [lions are disappearing] from a habitat loss and people hunting them. Whatever we can do to have that backup population, keep the genetics... and help them in the future.

"[Breeding] also helps to showcase our lions and educate the public of why they're in strife," she said.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo now has nine lions in the enclosure.

Over at the giraffe habitat, zookeeper Bobby-Jo Vial introduced the first giraffe calf, Mtoto, who was born on June 21, and the newest, Wayo, born on Saturday afternoon.

The keepers try to look for names to honour the animals' heritage in Africa. Since the zoo houses different species of giraffes, their origins and local language were looked up to come up with meaningful names.

Mtoto was chosen by guests and people that follow the zoo on social media. It means trouble. Wayo means 'footprint' in Swahili, spoken in East African countries Kenya and Tanzania.

"Mum was using her foot a lot to try to get [Wayo] to stand up for the first time. It took over two hours to stand up... that's not normal. I was initially a little bit concerned about him. But then he got up and hasn't looked back now. He's very powerful, very strong, and we thought 'footprint' was a nice name," Ms Vial said.

She said it was important to raise awareness about the silent extinction happening with giraffes.

"There's this misconception that there's lots of giraffes. There are only 110,000 in the world,"

Biggest threats to giraffes in the wild include habitat loss, civil war, and poaching for bushmeat.

"It's very important that we can provide a breeding program for giraffe and western plains very successful at that," Ms Vial.

The birth of these lion cubs and giraffe calves took years of planning. The zoo has a "studbook keeper", they take a look at the breeding and all animals available, and decide their future.

"It's kind of like an online dating system. We work out who's the best pair for genetics, and we make that happen. It was all planned. [For] most zoo animals we plan years in advance," Ms Vial said.

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