Lions Kill And Eat Suspected Poacher – Leaving Only His Head
NPRLion and lioness at Kruger National Park.
Poachers are hunters who illegally poison, catch, and kill animals so that they can sell the animal or its parts on the black market. But in an unprecedented incident that took place at a private game park in South Africa, it was the other way around.
A man believed to be a poacher was mauled to death by the pride of lions he was thought to be hunting. It happened in the province of Limpopo of northeastern South Africa over the weekend of Feb. 10, 2018. The pack of lions attacked and killed the suspected poacher near Kruger National Park at the Hoedspruit private game park.
Little of the man’s remains were left as the animals ate his body after killing him. Only his head was left behind.
Moatshe Ngoepe, a local police spokesman, said authorities initially thought the dead man was a park employee and tractor driver who had gone missing. However, that man has since been found alive.
The identity of the eaten man is still being determined in an ongoing investigation. A loaded hunting rifle was found nearby, leading authorities to believe he was, in fact, a poacher. Additionally, poaching in the area has been on the rise in recent years due to an increase in rhinoceros poaching.
Poaching is hunting without legal permission from whoever controls the land and contributes to loss of vulnerable and endangered populations of animals like tigers, rhinoceroses, or orangutans.
Those caught for poaching animals are usually given penalties in the forms of hefty fines, so poachers see it as an economic risk-to-reward balance. Of course, there is nothing that can be done when it comes to the animals that are captured. And in this case, the risk-to-reward stakes were clearly more than economic ones.
