SANDSTONE, Minn. (KQDS-TV)- New lion Kiros has been reunited with his family at The Wildcat Sanctuary. 

Last year the sanctuary in Sandstone rescued multiple lions from a roadside zoo in Canada.

During the rescue The Wildcat Sanctuary Founder and Executive Director, Tammy Thies, learned that one young cub was missing from the site.

“What we found out through social media and other things is that this cub, sadly, when he was just four weeks old was sold to the pet market,” Thies said. 

The sanctuary learned Kiros was seized and placed in an accredited zoo and needed a permanent home.

So staff made the trip to Canada to reunite the lion with his family.

“Not only is this a rescue, it is a family reunion. We had already rescued his father and mother, Kim and Carl and his half sister Mango last year. So to bring the final sibling home to this family is really special,” Thies said. 

Kiros was placed in an enclosure right next to his sister.

“I think he had a little too much interest in his sister Mango, who’s much smaller, but within a few days of settling in he’s really made himself quite at home here at the sanctuary,” Thies said. 

Mango on the other hand, is a little jealous of her big brothers attention. 

“Right now they have a hallway between, because she’s smaller for safety, but we’re hoping to put them on a shared wall in the near future and see what interactions we see,” Thies said. 

Kiros is two and half, and is already showing off his chill personality. 

“So Kiros, which means lord, definitely he’s not really a lord type. I would say he’s more of a chill beach bum kind of lion,” Thies said.

The goal is to eventually unite the family live as a pride.

“In the wild, they live as family units for quite some time, but here in captivity, Kim and Carl probably do not know that they are the parents of these two, but they do know how to live as a pride,” Thies said. 

While Kiros continues to adapt to his new environment, the sanctuary is always looking ahead.

“As a rescue we don’t know the next cat or the next species we’re going to get. But now that we have 14 lions, we kind of know what the future looks like for Kiros here, and he’s going to be testing some some of our patience a little bit as a teenager,” Thies said. 

The Wildcat Sanctuary is a non-profit rescue sanctuary that is home to over 150 animals.

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