‘Why we had to shoot the lions’
The MTPA confirmed yesterday afternoon that the four male lions which escaped from the Kruger National Park were shot dead.
The three remaining lions had to be shot, after a farmer in the Crocodile River Conservancy decided to kill one on Wednesday night, reports the Lowvelder.
The escaped pride had killed a cow on his property.
Dr Sam Ferreira, large-mammal ecologist of the Kruger National Park, explained to the Lowvelder that since one was also injured, he had to be put down.
“A wounded lion is dangerous,” he said.
Due to the terrain’s dense bush, it proved impossible to dart the healthy ones.
A veterinarian with a dart gun was in the chopper that went looking for them. “It was our intention to see if we could catch them, but the bush was too dense,” Ferreira said.
“We couldn’t dart them through the branches. So we took the decision to shoot.
“The fact is that you can’t leave only one. They have been together all this time – if you leave one it could take months to find him,” he added.
Ferreira concluded by saying that, while the farmer acted within the law to protect his property, he should have phoned the MTPA sooner.
– Caxton News Service
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