Lion saved as cub from Ukraine war and brought to US battles rare fungal disease

Four-year-old Taras, who now resides at a Minnesota sanctuary, was diagnosed with an often fatal infection A lion that escaped the war in Ukraine after being found as a four-month-old cub inside a duffel bag at Odesa railway station is facing an even greater battle for survival in his new home in Minnesota from a rare and often fatal fungal disease. Taras; his two sisters, Lesya and Stefania; and an unrelated, slightly older cub from Kyiv named Prada were brought to the US in November 2022 by the Wildcat Sanctuary, a secluded private reserve near Sandstone, Minnesota, that arranged their rescue with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). An American veterinarian working in Ukraine’s capital, which was under sporadic attack from Russian missiles and drones, evacuated them from Kyiv to safety in Poland, a 36-hour land journey, where they awaited import permits for the US. Now aged four, Taras was an energetic head of the Ukrainian pride until May, when veterinarians noticed he was sluggish and off his food. Numerous tests, including a 180-mile (290km) round trip for an expensive scan and lung biopsy at a specialist clinic in Minneapolis, diagnosed blastomycosis, a non-cont