It all started with a toothache.

For months, the lion at the Oklahoma City Zoo ignored the two lionesses conservationists hoped he'd mate with, zoo spokeswoman Tara Henson said. Keepers discovered the mood killer: a 2-inch bone stuck in his teeth, like a piece of a popcorn kernel. A dentist treated the 400-pound cat one day in July, and the next day, as Henson said, "was a lovefest."

Four months later, the zoo is home to four new lion cubs. If the two pregnancies weren't odd enough, both mothers needed emergency Caesarean sections because of complications.

The scenario, Henson said, is uncommon, to say the least.

Zoo officials announced the arrival of the cubs Tuesday. Two sisters were born Nov. 4, and a brother and sister were born Nov. 6. None of the cubs is named yet. They won't be on display to the public until spring, Henson said. Until then, streaming video of the cubs is available 7 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. daily at www.okczoo.com.

The mothers, Tia and Bridget, are both 8. They had been the last lions born at the zoo.

The lionesses' matching pregnancies and complicated births were flukes of good timing and bad luck, said Jonathan Reding, supervisor of the zoo's Cat Forest and Lion Overlook.

Reding and his staff followed the gestational calendar. After about 112 days, both lionesses started showing common signs of labor, such as pacing, eating less and lying in their dens. The staff waited and waited, but no cubs came.

Then zookeepers found the problem:

"It was one of those freakish things," Reding said. "Each one had a cub stuck in her uterus."

The zoo staff teamed up with Veterinary Services at Oklahoma State University to perform C-sections.

More than a dozen people helped.

The mothers were sedated, so the cubs had to be revived after delivery, said Zach Ricker, a second-year surgery resident at OSU.

Operating on a 300-pound lioness is like operating on a house cat, Ricker said. "It's basically the same thing, just a lot bigger," he said. "The principles of surgery hold true."

Zoo officials waited as long as they could before deciding to operate, said Brian Aucone, director of animal management with the zoo.

"We try to let nature take its course," he said, but the situation could have killed the mothers and the cubs.

C-sections are fairly common procedures among felines, Aucone said, though none had been performed on large cat at the local zoo.

The mothers should recover within a few weeks, Aucone said. Their bellies are shaved at the incision site.

As the moms recover, the cubs grow.

Each cub weighed about 3 pounds at birth, Aucone said, but all have grown to about 5 pounds in two weeks.

"They're basically sleeping a lot, eating some and playing a little bit," Reding said. "A majority of the time you'll see them, they'll be sleeping."

Source: Carrie Coppernoll, The Oklahoman
Contact: Zoo Public Relations