• The Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium welcomed a new female lion cub on April 5.
• The currently unnamed cub will likely make her public debut in late summer.
• The cub and her mother are currently in a private den to bond, mimicking natural behaviors.

This summer, Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium will have a new “mane” attraction after a cub’s birth in April.

The female cub, born to nine-year-old parents Scarlett and Hondo, came into the world on April 5.

Scarlett and her cub were residing in a private maternity den as of May 20, the zoo said in a release. Here’s when you’ll be able to see them.

When can I see Pittsburgh Zoo’s new lion cub?

The lion cub, who doesn’t have a name yet, will likely make her public debut in late summer. The zoo is waiting until the cub shows strong mobility skills before placing her in the public lion habitat. In the meantime, adult lions are still out and about and can be seen by zoo visitors.

Where is Pittsburgh Zoo’s lion cub?

As of May 20, the cub and Scarlett were in a quiet area away from the public to let them bond, with veterinarians routinely performing health checkups.

This, according to the zoo, is to mimic how lions and their cubs would behave in the wild: Lionesses seek out isolated shelters where they can hunker down with their young until the cubs are strong enough to join their pride.

How big is Pittsburgh Zoo’s lion cub?

The zoo didn’t say exactly how big the lion cub was, but it said cubs typically weigh about two or three pounds when they’re born. Much like domestic cats, lion cubs are born blind, with their eyes opening within a week or two.

“The cub is doing great and exceeding milestones,” Assistant Curator of Mammals Karen Vacco said. “Scarlett is an excellent mother and has been caring for the cub well. Animal care staff are carefully monitoring healthy nursing patterns and normal maternal behavior.”

When did Pittsburgh Zoo last have lion cubs?

It’s been nearly six years since a lion cub was born at Pittsburgh Zoo. The last birth was in July 2020, when lioness Abana mothered three cubs.

Pittsburgh cub’s birth marks ‘major victory’ for species survival

Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium noted that the birth of the cub marks a “major victory” for the Association of Zoos & Aquarium’s Lion Species Survival Plan. The plan is a national effort to ensure genetic diversity in animals in human care.

In the wild, African lions are vulnerable, as they face threats from habitat loss, conflict with humans and declining prey. Successfully rearing lion cubs is part of conservation efforts to help the future of the species, the zoo said.

How much do Pittsburgh Zoo tickets cost?

Tickets to visit the zoo between May 22 and September 7 cost between $31 and $36, depending on the specific ticket you opt for. On May 21, there are single-day tickets that range in price from $20 to $24.

Finch Walker is the Pittsburgh Connect Reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Contact Walker at FWalker@usatodayco.com. Instagram: @finchwalker_. X: @_finchwalker.

It was pure déjà vu at the Pittsburgh Public Schools board meeting on Wednesday night.

District leaders are again deciding whether to close nine school buildings and reconfigure many more — a plan administrators failed to get board support for last fall. PPS board members are slated to take up another vote on the plan next week.

“We’ve had some conversations, we’ve had some decisions, but the plan that we’re voting on next week looks much like the same plan that we voted on in November,” said District 2 director Devon Taliaferro. “That still sits as a concern with me.”

If passed, the plan would permanently close seven buildings at the end of the 2026-2027 school year: Manchester K-8, Schiller 6-8, Friendship PreK-5 (Montessori), Fulton PreK-5, Miller African-Centered Academy, Woolslair PreK-5 and the Student Achievement Center.

Two more buildings, Spring Hill K-5 and the primary school at Morrow K-8, would close at the end of the 2028-2029 school year once renovations to reopen Northview PreK-5 in Northview Heights are complete.

Morrow’s K-5 program would remain intact, and the district plans to move Schiller’s STEAM-focused, middle school programming to Allegheny Traditional Academy, also on the city’s North Side. Officials also want to relocate the Montessori program to Linden PreK-5 in Point Breeze.

The rest of the schools on the closure list, however, would be dissolved, setting in motion a cascading series of school mergers, feeder pattern shifts and programmatic changes.

With many moving pieces and calls for more transparency, board vice president Yael Silk suggested that PPS hold quarterly updates as administrators implement the plan.

“There have been lots of questions, both from board members and also from community members, and the answer has often been [that] those answers will come once we’re in the implementation phase,” Silk said. “So I also see this as a clear promise to the community that, should this resolution pass, that we as a board will have a process in place for regular updates.”

Director Emma Yourd echoed those concerns, calling for the establishment of a temporary committee tasked with scheduling and communicating these updates.

Taliaferro said that while those amendments to the closure resolution would be helpful, they may not be significant enough changes to sway her vote.

She also urged the district to be more transparent about how it plans to utilize the buildings slated for closure. Five of the nine buildings on the closure list are located in Taliaferro’s district.

“And what I don’t want to see is that the buildings just sit there,” she said. “Although we have to still maintain those spaces at the bare minimum, they still become eyesores in [the] community.”

Taliaferro also raised concerns that selling the buildings without caution could leave room for new charter schools to sprout up in their place.

Several PPS buildings closed in the past two decades now house charter schools. On the North Side, Propel operates a K-8 school out of the former PPS Columbus Middle School. In Hazelwood, the charter network has taken over the former Burgwin Elementary School.

Kids at Environmental Charter School walk through the same halls that Regent Square Elementary School and Rogers Middle School students walked before their buildings closed in 2004 and 2009, respectively.

“My concern is that that can hit us later on down the road, should a charter school end up in one of those buildings, and now we are, um, paying for charter tuition in a building that we closed because we put no thought into what happens with those spaces,” Taliaferro said.

Board members will vote next Wednesday on whether to move forward with the closures.