In a shocking and heart-wrenching incident, a lioness ate her two cubs three days after giving birth to them. The incident took place at Leipzig Zoo in Germany where the five-year-old Kigali gave birth to the pair and then swallowed the cubs while grooming them. This isn't a very common sight, seeing a mother eating her babies, even in the animal kingdom. And, therefore, it has taken everyone on social media as well as the zoo members by shock. The zoo crew took to Facebook to express grief about the unusual event.

Their Facebook page post, after translation in English, read: "Our two lion cubs are dead. We are shocked and sad. Until last night Kigali had done everything right and looked after her first offspring. The lioness and her puppy evidently did well. Also in the evening hours yesterday, the inexperienced mother cared for her boys, before she suddenly ate the two young animals during grooming one after the other completely."

They further informed that, "An autopsy and thus examination of the juveniles can not take place because of this. Kigali makes a calm impression today and had already eaten regularly during the day yesterday. She initially remains in the rear, before she leaves the mother's room in the coming days and is re-socialized with the cat Majo."

Take a look at the post:

There have been incidents when sometimes animals kill their own cubs when they cannot feed their babies or the environment isn't suitable for the babies survival, but eating their offsprings up in a positive environment is extremely unusual.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 08, 2019 09:39 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).