Get to know Oklahoma City Zoo's newest lion cubs

The Oklahoma City Zoo is always bringing new animals and exhibits to the forefront, and the latest addition to the zoo grounds are five African lion cubs.

At about nine-and-a-half months old, the five cubs are continuing to grow more familiar with the zoo's existing pride of lions, which also contains the cubs' parents and an aunt.

The Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages Porch travelled to the zoo to learn more from the animal caretakers tending to the cubs.

Oklahoma City Zoo Director of Carnivores Tyler Boyd said the cubs are already out with the pride each day.

"We've got our five African lion cubs that were born in May ... They're out there with mom, Dunia and their aunt Moto this morning, and dad, Huey," Boyd said. "The whole pride just came out after they got their morning breakfast inside, and we got a good look at all of them, and the care staff has put out some enrichment for them. They're playing in some leaves, they're rolling on their hot rock, and they're just excited that the weather's turned around and it's finally nice again."

Boyd also noted the spots each cub was born with on their fur, which help the animals blend into their natural habitat in the wild.

"When these guys are born, they have spots that help them to blend in with their natural habitat and surrounding, so that when mom needs them to kind of settle down in the grasses, other large predators aren't finding them," Boyd said. "They'll maintain those spots for about a year and a half to two years, so they're starting to grow out of them."

Boyd says the cubs are at their "teenage" phase, which includes a lot of energy and the beginnings of manes growing around their head.

"You can see on them they're starting to grow some little manes, they're not quite at the full level of the mane of their dad Huey yet, but they're getting there," Boyd said. "They're just learning to be lions right now, so this is a great opportunity for them to interact with the pride, learn how to be social cats, because they are one of the only social cats in the animal kingdom."

Weighing in at around 100 pounds already, Boyd said the lions still have a lot of growing to do.

"These guys can get all the way up to about 350 to 400 pounds," Boyd said. "Huey, their dad, he weighs just under 400 pounds, and that weight will fluctuate throughout the year as well. They'll start to lose weight in the summer, when they slim down a little bit, and then we put a little bit of weight on him in the winter as well."

When it comes to enriching the lions throughout the day, Boyd said he and his staff pay special attention to different learning techniques.

"Sometimes we'll put out enrichment that helps them learn to acquire their food, so we'll do carcass feedings or pride feedings as a group," Boyd said. "Helps to build that social dynamic amongst the pride as well, and some things are just here ... We'll bring in different items from different animals in the zoo down here so that they can smell different animals, things like that. They get to chew on things, so they're trying to wear those teeth down. They still have those like little baby teeth that are just razor sharp right now, and mom Dunia would appreciate if they get rid of those real quick."