Lions Ate a Gang of Poachers Who Tried to Kill Protected Rhinos
By Melinda Cafferty, Natural Blaze
The internet is celebrating an unlikely alliance of lions who saved endangered rhinos from being poached by killing and devouring the killers on a South African game reserve.
We’re fairly certain that we do not need to point out the poetic justice here, but have you noticed that animals are becoming more likely to fight back against their killers/captors? Or perhaps we are just hearing about it more?
At least two suspected rhino poachers have been mauled to death and eaten by lions on a South African game reserve, officials say.
Rangers discovered the remains of two, possibly three, people in a lion enclosure in the Sibuya reserve, near the south-east town of Kenton-on-Sea.
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A high-powered rifle and an axe were also found.
There has been an rise in poaching in Africa in recent years, to feed growing demand for rhino horn in parts of Asia.
In China, Vietnam and elsewhere, rhino horn is believed to have aphrodisiac qualities.
Sibuya reserve owner Nick Fox said in a statement on the reserve’s Facebook page that the suspected poachers entered the reserve late on Sunday night or early on Monday morning.
(C) Sibuyu Game Reserve
Fox says that the unknown number of poachers must have wandered into the large lion pride without realizing it. “We’re not sure how many there were – there’s not much left of them,” he said.
The remains were first spotted on Tuesday 10:30 a.m. (EDT). The Sibuya game reserve lost three rhinos to poachers in 2016, and 9 rhinos were killed by poachers in the area (Eastern Cape province).
Sadly, this pales in comparison to the 7,000 rhinos killed in South Africa in the last decade.
The anti-poaching who arrived on the scene found an incriminating “hunting rifle with silencer, a long axe and wire-cutters.” They had to tranquilize three lions just to get to the remains.
(C) Sibuya Game Reserve
Police are now patrolling the area to keep an eye out for any poachers who may have survived. However, it does appear that the lions took care of business, seeing how guarded they were about their kills.
Who knows, maybe humans have unknown medicinal qualities, and that the lions received full market value for the poachers who tried to scurry away.
In 2017, at least three “trophy kill” hunters were killed by the animals they were attempting to kill.
Again, we don’t need to say it…
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