Many different types of predators, will kill young to get the female to go back into heat. From what I understand, as long as a mother has young, she won't go into heat. So males will commonly try to kill young to get the female to go into heat. I am pretty sure lions do that, I know bears do that, I think mountain lions do so. I would guess he either tried to kill a cub or she thought he was trying to kill a cub.
Would probably really suck for a mature male lion, to be cooped up in a cage with only one female and multiple cubs, for years.
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