Kariba killer lions put down by rangers
08/03/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
WILDLIFE rangers said Friday they had tracked down and killed three lions
believed to have attacked and killed two people in the lakeside resort of
Kariba this week.
A lioness and two “sub adult” cubs between two and three years old were
baited into traps and given lethal injections, the wildlife department
said.
Sub adults are about three-quarters of the size of a fully grown lioness.
Rangers said the mother was lame from a badly-swollen injured leg and
scarred from wresting itself from an illegal wire trap set by poachers. They
said the wounds accounted for the pride preying so close to Kariba’s
Mahombekombe township.
The lions devoured the body of one man on Tuesday and a day later attacked a
couple making love in the bush, killing the woman whose male companion
escaped unhurt.
Kariba had been put on full alert after the rogue lions struck. Fliers were
handed out in the town and a loudspeaker was used to caution people on the
dangers of lion attacks on the shores of Lake Kariba, a man-made
hydroelectric dam popular for fishing and tourism.
On Thursday, police confirmed that a ranger had been accidentally shot in
the leg during the hunt for the killer lions.