A zoo in central Mexico is growing its population of rare white lions with hopes of eventually establishing a sanctuary featuring the animals.
The Altiplano Zoo in Tlaxcala, about two hours east of Mexico City, recently began publicly showing two white lion cubs that were born in March.
Just about a dozen white lions remain in the wild, according to the Global While LionProtection Trust, based in South Africa, though several hundred are held in zoos around the world, including several in Mexico. They are not albinos, but have coloration that results from a genetic rarity.
The Tlaxcala Zoo, run by the state government, has five other white lions, including three adults and a cub born last year.
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Cesar Toriz, the zoo's director, says the cubs' mother rejected them so they had to be bottle fed formula for their first few months. They were the second litter of white lions for Miztli and Thonatiu, the parents, who are white lions themselves.
Mr Toriz says the cubs are gaining weight- now about 44 pounds and 23 inches long- and eat chicken and milk.
The zoo is holding a naming contest for them and Mr Toriz hopes that in a few years they can find them mates.
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
