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“We see them many times, bringing animals on stretchers,” he said. Shangai said the organization, which tries to beef up the dwindling population of lions in Ngorongoro, has brought animals that are not native to the area. They cannot escape from this blame,” he told Anadolu Agency. “Kopelion brings lions in this area without tracking their movements. Shangai blamed Kopelion - a non-governmental organization working to foster human-lions co-existence in Ngorongoro – for negligence and causing the tragedy. Shangai said local residents in Ngorongoro have in the past three years observed an unusual change in lions’ behavior. “A lioness rarely attacks children the worse she can do is to tease or threaten them,” he said. Orkery’s theory is supported by Emmanuel Shangai, the chairman of the Ngorongoro district council, who is surprised by a sudden change in lions’ behavior. “When a lion pounces on a human, the attack is usually to weaken him so that the predator can escape,” Daniel Orkery, a former ward councilor in Ngorongoro who saw the gruesome bodies of the victims, told Anadolu Agency. “In our culture when a lion develops a behavior of eating livestock and people, it has to be killed,” said Onesmo Ole Ngurumwa, a Dar es Salaam-based human rights activist who defends the rights of Maasai herders.Local residents who saw the boys’ corpses suggest the lioness was probably hungry or felt provoked in her sanctuary. Maasai pastoralists, who are normally armed with swords and sticks to protect their cattle from predators, depend on cattle to meet all their basic needs. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a UNESCO’s World Heritage site known for its dazzling landscapes, volcanic highlands, dense forests, vast plains, and wildlife.Īlthough the Maasai, a semi-nomadic ethnic group known for their gleaming and distended earlobes, have for decades lived harmoniously with wildlife, their relations with lions have always been hostile. “I will never be happy again without my brothers,” he mourned.Īs the human population increases and encroaches on wildlife habitats, conflicts between people and lions intensify. The sad incident, which highlights rising hostilities between humans and wildlife, traumatized the injured boy who is still nursing terrible wounds. The villagers woke up to a grim reality the following day when they spotted a hapless injured boy who pointed to grass tainted by blood. No sooner had the boys vanished into the forest, a wave of regret and anger welled in among Ngoile villagers, who embarked on a desperate search in the dew-laden forest. “It was all bones that I saw when I scaled down and ran away,” Lekitony said.
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The lioness, one of the animals darted with a VHF (very high frequency) collar, ate the bodies of the boys.Īs terrified Lekitony sat tightly on a branch of the tree for his dear life, a sharp smell wafted faintly through the air.
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The boys feeling a false sense of security were stalked by a lioness who mauled them to death. On the fateful evening of last Monday, the four brothers, aged between nine to 11 years and all primary school students at Orbalbal Ward in Tanzania’s northern Ngorongoro district, ventured out into the forest to trace their lost cattle only to face the wrath of a furious lioness. “I don’t know how I survived,” he recalled while talking to Anadolu Agency.
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Terror, shock, and fear engulfed 11-year-old Kiambwa Lekitony as a stalking lioness leaped on his three brothers, grabbed them by their throats and killed them instantly.ĭistraught and terrified Lekitony, who was painfully aware of the danger he was facing after being injured by the predator, climbed on a thorny acacia tree to save his life.