People of all ages clamored to get a glimpse Saturday morning of three nearly 4-month-old lion cubs making their official public debut at the Honolulu Zoo.

The cubs frolicked on the grass under trees in their exhibit, played with tree branches, climbed on logs and wrestled with each other. The cubs appeared oblivious to humans peering through a viewing window below, while their mother, Moxy, looked on.

A smile spread over 8-year-old Cooper Beall’s face as he watched the lion cubs and their mom come into view, then he pointed them out to his grandmother, Patricia Stark.

The Punahou School second-grader brought Stark, of Long Island, to the zoo just to see the cubs.

"He loves animals," she said.

This is the first time lion cubs have been born in Honolulu since 1971.

"If they (people) want to see them when they’re little they got to come soon," said Robert Porec, mammal curator at the zoo. The cubs weigh about 40 to 50 pounds and are growing at a rate of 10 pounds a month.

Cantrell Shiroma and her husband brought their son, 2, and his cousin, Makanani Tavai-Bright, who exclaimed: "They’re cute!"

Little ones pressed their noses against the window pointing, while parents, aunties and grandparents also seemed to get excited at the sight of the cubs.

"They’re so precious," Shiroma said. "We’re so happy they were born here in Honolulu. Honolulu’s own Simbas. ‘Circle of life.’"

Nuuanu resident Donna Hirashima, 57, squealed with excitement as she spotted the cubs. "They’re so cute. They’re babies. There’s mommy over there," she told her little nieces, ages 1 and 3.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced the cubs’ new names — Iolana, Kekoa and Alohi, chosen from a list of Hawaiian names by three students who won a statewide haiku contest sponsored by the Honolulu Zoological Society.

Punahou School second-grader Grady Garzo, 8, selected Kekoa, which means brave and courageous, for the male, who is the second-born cub.

Anela Donachie, 11, a sixth-grader at La Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls, chose Alohi, meaning to shine or sparkle, for the third-born cub, a female.

Kamehameha Schools seventh-grader Anuhea Parker, 12, chose Iolana, which means to soar, for the firstborn, a female.

The cubs’ father, Ekundu, has been introduced to the cubs through wire fencing and will be allowed to interact with them in a few weeks.

Zookeeper Tyris Perreira said the best time to view the cubs is from about 9:30 a.m. to lunchtime.

"It’s kind of exciting for me to see them" in a more natural setting, as they are able to engage in natural activities, building muscle and burning calories, she said.

Zookeepers put out boxes, branches and balls — what they term "enrichment" — for the cubs to encourage natural behavior such as exploring and playing, as well as jumping and biting each other.

"They’ll play with it and tear it into many pieces," Perreira said. "On exhibit, they play all day long, and when they’re not playing they’re sleeping or nursing."

Zookeepers use tongs to feed the cubs, who sit on a bench and are handed about a half-pound to a pound of a packaged mixture of horse meat and beef, Perreira said.

From a distance, Perreira said, it’s tough to tell them apart, but Alohi is the darkest and is more spotted than the others, sporting a dark stripe down her forehead and a longer face. Iolana has a blond fringe around her face. Kekoa, a mama’s boy, is the biggest, with a lump on his tail from being chewed on by one of his sisters, Perreira said.

The cubs, born Dec. 15, are pure Transvaal lion, a subspecies of lion in southern Africa, Porec said. They will remain in Honolulu until they are about 1 to 11⁄2 years old, he said.

Lions are considered vulnerable and could become endangered. An estimated 21,000 to 31,000 wild lions live in Africa, down 50 percent in the past 30 to 40 years, Porec said. There are 329 lions in captivity in 99 accredited zoos, he said.

To ensure genetic diversity, the cubs will go to other zoos for breeding purposes with lions who are unrelated, and could go to zoos in other states as well as abroad. (Tiger cubs born at the Honolulu Zoo were sent to zoos in Washington state, France and Japan.)

"These cubs are going to be shared around the world," Caldwell said, adding they will take their Hawaiian names with them wherever they go, so visitors will know that they came from the Honolulu Zoo."