Lion is Shot Down after Escaping from Nairobi National Park and Attacking a Man

This is the brutal end for a lion which was shot dead after it escaped from a national park in Kenya and attacked a man.

The dark-maned lion was gunned down by the Kenya Wildlife Service after it was spotted roaming in the Kajiado district, 35 miles from the capital Nairobi.

Pictures show the trained ranger taking aim at the animal which crumples to the ground as shots are fired.

A mob had gathered around the lion, forcing the rangers to shoot it to avert further injuries, a spokesman for the Service said.

'It had injured somebody. There was a crowd that had formed around it, so it was practically impossible to capture it the way we planned to,' Paul Udoto, communications manager for the wildlife service said.

'The mob had formed and in the process somebody got injured, and by the time the veterinary and security teams got to the ground it was already beyond salvation,' Udoto said. 'With that commotion we risked more injuries or even possible deaths.'



Nairobi National Park lies on the city limits, providing visitors views of lions, rhinos, giraffes, zebras and other wildlife against a backdrop of high-rise buildings.

Lions are occasionally spotted in the city close to the park after they find a way through fences that protect the built-up areas near the reserve.

Onlookers had reportedly gathered to stare at the agitated animal, the fourth big cat to escape Nairobi National Park this year.

It was the second time someone had been injured by a lion in Kenya in under two weeks.

Udoto said the injured man had been taken to hospital and the animal shot 'after it (had) become wild'.

In previous incidents this year the lions have either been herded back to the 29,000-acre park or have returned of their own accord.

The reserve is almost surrounded by a fast-growing city of over three million people.


Earlier this month a 63-year old man was injured when a lion clawed at him close to a busy highway where motorists were honking their horns and snapping photographs and videos as they drove by.

The park is not entirely fenced to enable traditional migration by animals in search of grazing.

The big cats are under growing pressure as one of Africa's fastest growing cities expands onto ancient migration routes and hunting grounds.

Conservationists say lions lived there before people in the area and are not 'escaping' the park nor 'straying' into human settlements, rather people have moved into the lions' habitat.

In mid-February, two lions spent a day wandering through Kibera, a densely-packed city slum, before returning to the park, and days later more lions were spotted in town.


Music: "Infados" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: DailyMail , Allafrica , The Star.co , Reuters

Comments