Cuenca Amaru Biopark zoo loses its ‘Lion King’

The Amaru Biopark announced Friday the death of Simba, a 16-year-old male lion. Simba and two female lions were rescued and relocated to Cuenca from a Quito-based circus in 2009, where government officials said they had suffered mistreatment.

Simba, the king of Cuenca’s lions

“Today we pay tribute to you, Simba. Today we say goodbye with much sadness,” managers of the biopark said in a statement. “You brought smiles to children, young and old alike, who had the opportunity to see a lion up close for the first time! You were the ambassador of your species, and a proud representative of Cuenca.

“Our biopark welcomed you when you were just six months old, and we are sure that those who met you admired your beauty, strength, character and stature.”

The statement continued that Simba, sometimes called the “king of the lions of Cuenca,” was the alpha male of the park’s nine African lions who raised cubs with Afra and Kiara, also rescued from the Quito circus.

Although the mission of Amaru Biopark, located off the Cuenca-Azogues autopista, is to promote and protect the wildlife of Ecuador and the Andean region of South America, it has over the years adopted several non-native species that needed a good home.