Kito, a 10-year-old lioness at the Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton, has two new playmates from Ontario, five months after the death of her male companion.

Marshall the lion died in January, but now Kito and two new African lion cubs are roaming around the zoo.

Bruce Dougan, the zoo's manager, said the addition of the cubs is good news, since Kito has been depressed since the death of her cage companion.

However, it has taken Kito a few weeks to get used to her new friends, according to Dougan.

He said the cubs, which came from different Ontario zoos, were first placed in a pen beside Kito so she could get used to their smell.

The 10-month-old female is coming from the Elmvale Jungle Zoo and the 15-month-old male is from Safari Niagara.

"She could see them, they could vocalize back and forth and so that was a long process, then we had to get Kito into the house, and let the cubs out into the big pen, so they were comfortable in this big area out here."

Dougan said after several weeks, the cubs were moved in with Kito, but there has been a problem: The male cub has been trying to dominate Kito, especially at feeding time.

"They would become very territorial, very possessive of the meat, and this led to some fighting," he said.

"So now during feeding time, we're going to lock the little ones inside and feed them in the house."

The male may still be sorting out his dominant issues, but Dougan says Kito had bonded with the young female cub.

"She's really taken to the little female. So I think they're going to be good friends," he said.

"I think they all are going to be really good friends once they get this pecking order stuff out of the way."

The two little lions are still without names. Dougan said the zoo plans to unveil a community contest to name the lions on Wednesday.