Lion sextuplets delivered at Henderson’s Lion Habitat Ranch

While much of the Las Vegas Valley was sleeping, history was made at the Lion Habitat Ranch on Wednesday in Henderson.

In the early hours of the morning, a 6-year-old African lion named Pebbels gave birth to six cubs at the 6.2-acre facility, each weighing about a pound and small enough to fit in the cup formed by two human hands.

The litter was Pebbels’ third, and Lion Habitat Ranch owner Keith Evans, 68, said it was the largest lion cub litter he had ever seen or heard of.

“For her to have that many and survive is fantastic,” he said.

A lion usually gives birth to one or two cubs, said Evans, an Ohio native with 45 years of experience caring for exotic cats, but some can have up to four in a litter. Five cubs is incredibly rare, he said.

On Thursday, the new cubs huddled together in one of the facility’s 15 fenced enclosures, inside a plywood-walled den. They hadn’t yet made it out into the yard but were still in plain sight.

The public can see the cubs as soon as 11:30 a.m. today, Evans said, viewing the new family from as close as 20 feet away, from behind a Plexiglas window.

It’s up to Pebbels to decide when her cubs will leave the den and play in the enclosure’s yard, Evans said — and that’s fine with him. Besides cleaning the den box, the staff has no plans to interact with the cubs until their mother gives them enough independence, Evans said. That could take up to two weeks.

“They’ll be out there running and playing soon,” he said.

Lion cubs are born blind, Evans said, and can only hiss and cry to get their mother’s attention. The cubs can crawl but can’t yet walk.

“It’s Mother Nature’s way of making sure they don’t wander away. In the wild, mom would have to leave them and go hunt.”

The staff at Lion Habitat Ranch still doesn’t know the genders of the six cubs, Evans said, but he hopes to have that figured out soon. Cubs gain around 10 to 12 pounds a month in the first few months of life.

Evans, who founded the ranch in 1989, now owns 52 lions and other exotic animals such as ostriches, emus and a giraffe. He intends to keep the new lions in Henderson — for now. With the current space and nine employees to help him care for the animals, the longtime caretaker said providing enough space for the animals to live comfortably isn’t an issue.

But as the animals mature, he said he might reconsider.

“I just hope they all survive,” he said, “and when the time comes, we’ll figure it out.”

Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj.