South African zoo director John Spence had been searching for surviving Cape lions, and recognised the cubs from photographs. He is to take the two cubs to his own zoo in an attempt to restore the breed in South Africa.
But Russian TV says three-month-old cubs in Novosibirsk zoo are descended from the breed. Zoo-keepers say the lions thrive in Siberia despite temperatures as low as -40C in winter. The cubs' parents, named Simon and Rita, had two litters this year.
South African zoo director John Spence had been searching for surviving Cape lions, and recognised the cubs from photographs. He is to take the two cubs to his own zoo in an attempt to restore the breed in South Africa.
The Cape lions were bigger in the body than other lions, and had a thick black mane which sometimes reached the middle of their back. They also had distinctive black tips to their ears.
It is not known how the lions arrived in Siberia, but the family in Novosibirsk is supposed to be descended from a lion left behind by a circus many years ago.
This is not the first time that supposedly extinct breeds of lion have apparently been found surviving in small populations.
Former Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia's personal troupe of lions, which survived for many years in a zoo in Addis Ababa, were thought to be descended from Barbary lions, also long believed to have been wiped out.
Zoo staff in Novosibirsk say they will be sorry to part with the two cubs - but they are happy that they are "going home".
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