The Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) and SANPARKS officials received a report that one of the farm owners in the Mara valley shot one Lion and wounded another after a lion killed his cattle. The carcass of the cow was found in the vicinity of the farm.
The officials who are currently on site using the Kruger National Park Helicopter managed to find the remainder of the lions close to the carcass of the cow. The team is operating in an extremely difficult and challenging terrain which made darting difficult option.
“We have a dedicated and experienced team on site that has been working tirelessly to locate and capture these lions. Unfortunately, after all, efforts were made and the risk of having a wounded Lion roaming around, a decision had to be taken to destroy them” said Mr Abe Sibiya, head of Biodiversity at MTPA
For the past few days bait was placed at various strategic points, however, there has been no progress until today.
The team worked under a lot of pressure to ensure that progress was made on this search.
We would like to thank SANPARKS officials for providing all the necessary support and resources to assist us in this operation. The continuous alerts received from the farm owners and community in the area assisted the team to be on constant alert” concluded Sibiya
The community and far owners are urged to continue to contact us in future if such incidents occur.
Issued by MTPA
Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency and SANPARKS
