09-05-2025
Flashback Friday: Celebrating Mother's Day at The Great Plains Zoo
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Mother's Day is on Sunday and people all over will be finding different ways to say thank you to mom. But it's not just humans who have a special connection with their mothers. In this week's Flashback Friday, Keloland's Bobbi Lower takes us back to 1982 to see how a family of Lions joined in on the celebrations at the Great Plains Zoo.
This is Apollo, a three-month-old African lion club, and this is her mother, and father. For educational use, Apollo is taken away from her mother and father at the Great Plains Zoo, but in the wilds of Africa, the family would all live together, with mom taking care of Apollo.
'Lions are very good mothers. In the wild, a lion cub and its mother are real close, and like the lion cub will stay with the mother for like two or three years. They get a real close bond'
She says it's really not necessary for cubs to stay with their mothers for two years, it's just a way of life. They hang around till they take a mate.
'They're a social animal, they live in groups, and it's just…how they're…they're that type of animal, they live close together. They'll just say were there is protection and food.'
As you can see, lions aren't the only social animals, but people may be the only ones that honor their moms.
There's one thing for sure, The Great Plains Zoo is a grand place to spend mother's day, and that's no lion. Bobbi Lower, KELOLAND News.
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