Photo courtesy of Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance

Denver’s lion population will soon be doubling. On October 23, Simba, Nala, and their fellow big cats will return to the Buell Theatre for the Denver Center’s production of The Lion King. In anticipation of the pride’s arrival, I spoke with some of the wildlife experts at Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, where Denver’s real-life lions reside. Our following conversation has been condensed and edited.

Could you tell me about the lions that live at Denver Zoo?

Katelyn Stache (KS), Assistant Curator of Carnivores: We have our four brothers that came here at a year old. They are in a group of their own called a coalition. Then we have a group of three adult females that are three generations, so it’s grandma, mom, daughter. The daughter is the one who just became a mom to our four cubs, which is one male and three females in that litter. They are nine weeks old now.

There are two brothers in The Lion King, Mufasa and Scar, who famously do not get along. Is that a concern for the lions at Denver Zoo?

KS: No, not for the brothers. Typically what happens is, in a pride, brothers and cousins would actually work together. The larger the coalition, the more beneficial because then they can defend a bigger territory and be more likely to survive longer term. They still, just like any siblings, will have their scuffles. [But] they’re built for that.

Photo courtesy of Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance

In The Lion King, Simba the lion becomes great friends with Timon and Pumbaa, who are a meerkat and a warthog. What’s the likelihood of that kind of friendship playing out in the wild?

KS: Very unlikely. The lion may play with them, but it won’t end well for the other animals.

So I take it Denver Zoo is not willing to give it a try.

KS: No. We do have a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig [that] is able to take walks around the zoo. So some of our carnivores have seen him. He’s very tolerant and knows that he’s safe because he’s not going into their space with them. But we see some pretty fun reactions from them.

What kinds of reactions?

KS: A lot of shoving their faces up as close as possible to the glass that’s between them and the pig. They get their really wide eyes; everybody’s coming right over to it. It’s like an excitement, I guess.

Maybe hunger.

KS: Always. They’re always hungry.

At the beginning of The Lion King, you have Mufasa as the king of Pride Rock. Which of Denver Zoo’s lions is the king of the pride?

KS: I mean, technically, the females would have chosen Scar because he has a darker mane, and usually that can be correlated with higher testosterone. [But in terms of Denver Zoo’s lions], they all have their own unique behaviors and characteristics. Some are more willing to push through and be more dominant in some things.

If there’s a large carcass, our smallest male is actually the one who will defend his piece the most. Everyone’s afraid to go near him when he has his chunk of a carcass. Our biggest male, once he has his spot that he wants to be in, no one else is going to mess with him. So it really just depends. However, if you’re going off Mufasa [being] the dad of the cubs, Usiku is actually the dad of our cubs. So I guess he’d be the Mufasa in that situation.

Photo courtesy of Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance

What was it about Usiku that told you he was ready to be a father?

Emily Insalaco (EI), Sr. Director of Wildlife Care and Ecology: Accredited zoos participate in something called species survival programs. And what those are, they’re just cooperative management for a species across multiple institutions. And one of the things that we look at is the genetics.

One of our goals is to maintain a genetically and biologically healthy population of lions. There’s an entire management group, and they make recommendations: “these genetics would be great to breed, and these facilities have the space and expertise to do it.” So we got a recommendation for the genetics of our boys to match up to our five-year-old female, Araali. And then because they were all genetically equal, it became up to the expertise of the team here to say who might be the best match.

KS: [Usiku] is just the most laid-back and gentle, and socially wants to get along with everybody. He doesn’t like to start fights or anything. It can be kind of nerve-racking to put two lions together, especially if a male hasn’t been around females for a really long time. [But Usiku] was pretty chill about all of it. He was a perfect gentleman for Araali.

If you chose Usiku because he’s so chill, then it sounds like over time we’re going to end up with a lot of very casual, laid-back lions.

KS: Well, the babies are not. Araali is a feisty lady.

EI: These cubs will probably be here for two years or so, because they have a lot of learning to do. Lions are the only real social big cats. Social animals have a lot of teaching and learning to do together. That’s what a pride is really about.

VISIT: Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance

GO SEE: Disney’s The Lion King