Any day and any season is exciting at the Cotswold Wildlife Park. We love it there and it was always going to be part of our #SummerOf16 just like it’s part of most of holidays.

But this year it’s even more exciting, because the the Wildlife Park has just celebrated the birth of the first ever Lion cub triplets in its forty-six year history, now that truly is something to get excited about.

The Park’s pair of rare Asiatic Lions, Rana and Kanha, have made history with their very first litter. Their cubs are the first Lion triplets to be born at Cotswold Wildlife Park since it opened in 1970.

The new parents are both five years old. Rana arrived at the Park on Valentine’s Day 2013 from a zoological collection in France.  Kanha joined him one year later from Parken Zoo in Sweden. Both came to the collection as part of the European Breeding Programme (EEP) and keepers hoped that they would one day produce a litter of their own. The two formed an instant bond and two years later, after a gestation period of four months, Kanha gave birth to three cubs – Kali, Sita and Sonika.

So this summer, as part of our Staycation in the Cotswolds, we most certainly will be paying the lion cub triplets and all of the other animals a visit at Cotswolds Wildlife Park… until we do, the below are photos from this time last year on a super day out in the name of wildlife in Burford.