Ten lions killed in Kenyan ‘human-wildlife conflict’
Six lions were killed on Saturday in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park in what authorities have described as a “human-wildlife conflict.” The wild animals were reportedly speared to death after they attacked livestock, in a blow to the country’s conservation efforts.
“This is not an isolated incident,” the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said, adding that “over the last week, four other lions have been killed, resulting in a total of ten lions killed in the Amboseli ecosystem.”
According to the KWS, the killings were carried out by herders after the lions attacked 11 goats and a dog in Kajiado South Sub County, in a country where human-wildlife conflict is a frequent problem.
The KWS said it met with community members to discuss ways to “find lasting solutions” to the issue, including developing early warning systems to alert communities to the presence of wildlife. The aim of the discussions is to determine ways of “balancing the needs of the local communities with the need to protect wildlife.”
While pledging to safeguard Kenya’s wildlife, which it described as a vital component of the nation’s heritage, the service urged the public to report instances of wild animal attacks to the KWS.
The latest killings come days after Loonkiito, an iconic 19-year-old male lion believed to be the world’s oldest in the wild, was speared to death after straying into a livestock pen on the outskirts of the famed Amboseli National Park.
In 2021, the KWS described Loonkiito as a “legendary big cat warrior” who had defended his territory for over a decade.
“It was an old lion that had issues… getting prey on its own and livestock is easy prey,” KWS spokesman Paul Jinaro told AFP, adding that “a normal lion would go for wildlife inside the park.”
Lion Guardian, a conservation organization dedicated to finding and enacting long-term solutions for human-wildlife coexistence, eulogized Loonkiito as “a symbol of resilience and coexistence.”
The Amboseli National Park is a significant tourist attraction and home to many prized game, including elephants, cheetahs, buffaloes, and giraffes. There are approximately 2,500 lions in Kenya, according to the country’s first-ever national wildlife census in 2021.
In July 2021, a lion caused panic in a crowded Nairobi neighborhood during rush hour after leaving Nairobi National Park, located just 7km from the city center. Incidents of wild animals escaping the park and entering the city have occurred before, including a fatal attack by a lion on a man just outside the park in December 2019, while another lion was shot dead in March 2016 after attacking and injuring a resident.
