KWS Spokesman Paul Gathitu told Capital FM News that the rangers were forced to shoot the animal after the situation became “life threatening.”/COURTESY
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 30 – The Kenya Wildlife Service on Wednesday put down a lion which attacked one person in Isinya.
KWS Spokesman Paul Gathitu told Capital FM News that the rangers were forced to shoot the animal after the situation became “life threatening.”
He said they had sent out two teams to recover the animal but ended up taking the extreme measure on account of the animal’s aggressive behaviour. “It became agitated by the crowds that had gathered to see it.”
The exact details of the attack however remain sketchy including those on where the lion strayed from. “It may not have necessarily come from the Nairobi National Park. That area is large and an intersection of wildlife coming from as far as Amboseli,” Gathitu said.
The incident comes hot on the heels of similar attack on a man along Mombasa Road by a lion that had strayed out of the Nairobi National Park.
READ: Drama as man is injured by lion on Mombasa Rd
“The difference in that case was that the lion didn’t turn on anyone else but ran back to the park,” Gathitu explained.
Not long before that, in February, four lionesses strayed out of the Nairobi National Park and were seen walking down Lang’ata road.
Following the incident the KWS assured the public that the, “escape hatch,” used had been identified and sealed up.
It has blamed the overcrowding in the park for the Lang’ata and Mombasa road incidents. “The number of lions in the park is too high. There are between 35 and 40 and given these are territorial beings, they’re always looking to push their boundaries. This is what we believe has led them to venture out of the park,” Gathitu said.
And while he assured that the animals are generally harmless unless agitated, he made clear that once they develop a taste for human flesh, they must be put down.
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