Editing Chester Zoo (section)

===Big cats===
As well as jaguars, Chester Zoo keeps [[lion]]s, [[tiger]]s and [[cheetah]]s in its big cat collection. The lions are the [[Asiatic lion|Asiatic subspecies]] found only in the Gir Forest in India in the wild. The zoo's former resident male Asoka was joined by a female, Asha, from [[Rome Zoo]] in 2006. The pair have bred on three occasions, but so far their only offspring to survive has been a male cub, Tejas, born and hand-reared in 2007. His upbringing was featured prominently in the first series of Zoo Days. Tejas left Chester Zoo for Besancon early in 2008 as part of the European breeding programme for this subspecies. Asoka left the zoo in early 2010 and was moved to Rome as part of the European breeding programme. His replacement is 3-year-old Iblis, who arrived from [[Planckendael Zoo]] in Belgium. In late summer 2011, Asha retired to Santillana Zoo and was replaced by four-year females Kiburi and Kumari.

In 2007, a male [[Sumatran tiger]] named Kepala arrived from [[Dudley Zoo]] to join the two resident female [[Bengal tiger]]s, who left in 2008. The same year, the zoo acquired a female tiger named Kirana, but unfortunately, it was discovered that the pair were related. Kepala departed to [[Dublin Zoo]] and a new male named Fabi was brought in from [[Prague Zoo]] to form a breeding pair of Sumatrans, a critically endangered subspecies in the wild. Kirana and Fabi bred and have so far bred successfully on three occasions since 2011.

The zoo welcomed its first ever cheetah cubs in June 2011. The cheetahs are the vulnerable [[Northeast African cheetah|Sudanese subspecies]]. A second litter was born in 2013.