Etawah, Jul 13 (IANS): Three of the five cubs born to lioness Sona within a period of five days have died at the Etawah Lion Safari in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah district, a forest official said.

The authorities at the safari kept the news a closely-guarded secret till Wednesday, when the principal chief conservator of forests, Mamta S. Dubey, confirmed the deaths.

After the first cub was born on July 6, Sona gave birth to four more — three on July 9 and one on July 10. Only the cub born on July 6 and one of the three born on July 9 are alive.

“Two cubs were stillborn and one was very weak and could not survive. Vets are monitoring the condition of the two surviving cubs,” Dubey said.

Officials said it was rare for a lioness to give birth to cubs over four to five days.

“Lionesses take a maximum of 24 to 30 hours to give birth to cubs. There is no research available about this either. Experts have been called from Gujarat to investigate and we have also written to Dehradun Wildlife Institute authorities to depute experts to study why this happened,” said the official.

Raising questions about the cubs' deaths, Yadav tweeted that the responsibility must be fixed.

"The inexperienced and incompetent staff should be changed because carelessness was shown even after pre-notification of pregnancy. Due process was not followed, and the postmortem and last rites were not performed after informing IVRI Bareilly and Central Zoo Authority," he said.