File this under “Lions bite man.” No… maybe we should instead file this under “Lions eat man.”
As we use to say in the Marine Corps: “Payback’s a med-evac”. Well, that’s the G-rated version.
Anyhow, the French news service Agence France-Presse is reporting that a suspected poacher has found himself on the receiving end of a rather economic pride of lions.
A suspected poacher was mauled to death and eaten by a pack of lions close to the Kruger National Park in South Africa, police said Monday, adding that little was left of the victim’s body.
The remains were found at the weekend in the bush at a private game park near Hoedspruit in the northern province of Limpopo, where animals have been poached in increasing numbers over recent years.
“It seems the victim was poaching in the game park when he was attacked and killed by lions. They ate his body, nearly all of it, and just left his head and some remains,” Limpopo police spokesman Moatshe Ngoepe told AFP.
There’s little doubt that what’s left of the human was in fact, a poacher. Also reported by AFP; “A loaded hunting rifle was found near the body on Saturday morning. Police are trying to establish the victim’s identity.”
While the jury’s still out if various species of mammals can actually feel advanced emotions, such as revenge, the AFP also noted;
Last year, several lions were found poisoned near a farm in the same province with their heads and paws sawn off.
Lion body parts are used in traditional medicine.
The New York Post also weighed in on the ironic end of the poacher’s life;
A total of three-quarters of all African lion populations worldwide are declining, with only about 20,000 currently left in the wild. Those numbers have fallen by more than 40 percent within the past three generations, according to World Wide Fund for Nature statistics.
BBC reports that lion body parts are sometimes used by doctors in Africa and elsewhere, particularly in southeast Asia, where they’re occasionally used as a substitute for tiger bones to treat several ailments from arthritis to erectile dysfunction.
One thing’s for sure – lions know how to satiate an empty belly.
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