Roaming lions will be tracked down and killed

October 03 2007 at 11:26PM

Limpopo's environmental affairs department has given the go-ahead for rangers to kill roaming lions that have escaped from the Kruger National Park, the SABC reported on Wednesday.

A department spokesperson said rangers had been sent to hunt and kill the lions.

Five more cattle were killed by lions at the Gawula village outside Giyani in Limpopo on Wednesday.

This brings to 47 the number of cattle killed since the beginning of last month, when four lions escaped from Kruger National Park.

One lion was hit by train and another was killed by authorities after eating a cow. The remaining two lions were initially thought to have returned to the park of their own accord.

Click here!

However, Kruger National Park spokesperson William Mabasa said a broken fence on the western part of the park had not yet been repaired.

"We have rangers patrolling the area at the moment. The issue of the fence is not a simple one because not only animals damage it, but also humans take parts of the fence for their own use," said Mabasa.

He said to solve the situation people needed to respect the fence as it protected them from the animals.

"In cases like these the damage has been done, the animals have escaped, there is little we can do," said Mabasa.

Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency spokesperson Jimmy Masombuka urged people not to approach or hunt the lions, but to report to authorities if they see them. - Sapa

Am I misreading something here or am I just getting paranoid? Four lions kill 47 cattle in a month?! Seems like a huge amount. The lions I've seen at Tsavo will kill a small buffalo and the family will feast on it for three days before killing again.

Again though, it is the wildlife that pays for the human's stupidity. If the natives take down the fence, then they should be prepared to pay the price!

dear jan,

you are 100% right!
the number of killed lifestock seems outragously high and of course animals always pay the price! especially in south africa - not only those who pull down the fences are stupid. but officials who allow putting down these lions are insane and need desperatly some education!

I personally think who wrote that story or the source has been on the local brew again; 47 cows by 4 lions - yah right...
Has anyone asked what compensation they get from their local wildlife council for every head of cattle killed.
Anything to make a buck - plus what do they expect when the animals are placed in a Park and not allowed to roam freely?
I do not think liuons understand traffic lights yet or have been taught to read the small print of not beiong allowed to cross the roads.... what a world do we live in.
The worst part is that people read this and believe this!!!

Glad you folks also agree that the total was ridiculously high.

I don't know about payments for lion deaths, but I know in Amboseli if an elephant kills a cow, the owner is paid $220.00.

About a year or 18 months ago during a bad drought, the Maasai were almost glad to have a cow killed. So many were dying from the drought anyway and now the owner got paid for a death. If indeed $200.00 dollars a year is the average yearly Kenyan salary, then with one cow killed the owner has already made out!

there is nothing outrageous about 47 head of cattled killed by 4 lions. this is quite normal when it comes to cattle. Very often, livestock killers will kill several head of livestock at one go and will leave some of them untouched. You see, most livestock will not stampede blindly in the dark of night and so lions see these "stupid" animals just standing there - immobilzed by fear and darkness - and so just go about killing several of them in a short period of time. There are numerous accounts of such incidents where large numbers of livestock were killed in one night or over a short period of time. Last year whilst in Namibia near Etosha, 3 neigbouring farms had lost over 60 head of cattled between them over a period of a few weeks. 1 night, they killed over 10 cows and a horse!

As for killing them, I agree that it may not be the best solution but if they weigh the economics involved and the time frame required to trap or dart 4 lions and translocate them to an area far enough away from human settlements that they may not revert back to livestock predation, then the best optionis to kill them. "Serial" livestock killers can be a very serious problem to solve without reverting to shooting the culprits. They often refuse to go back to natural prey and translocating them a short distance away to the nearest reserve/park will only mean that they will be back in that village soon enough or find another closer village to prey upon.