Lions saved rhinos from big-game hunters

Yahoo and the Associated Press reported Friday that a pride of lions in South Africa’s Sibuya Game Reserve had killed and apparently eaten several would-be poachers, who had broken into the reserve intending to kill a clan of rhinos for the animals’ horns. This reportedly took place Monday.

The men were armed with a high-powered rifle to bring down the enormous but helpless and harmless animals, and were carrying all the equipment needed to harvest the horns, which have considerable monetary value.

Any time human beings are killed, it is a tragedy, and that’s what this is. It’s also a tragedy when endangered beasts like rhinos are illegally ambushed so a few selfish men can turn a few dollars. The lions, of course, were only doing what comes naturally, according to the laws of the jungle

While I have never been much for blood sports, I have a number of friends and a couple of relatives who are hunters. They hunt ducks, quail and other birds in season, and always obtain the proper licenses. I certainly don’t object; it’s simply not for me.

But when I hear about the illegal shooting of such majestic animals as deer, moose, elk and even bear, it leaves me out of sorts and wondering what amusement or satisfaction a person might feel from such a “conquest.’’

I have a wonderful book, “Wildlife Fact File,” chock full of color photos and printed information about mammals of the world, some 190 in all. There is a companion book, which I also own, composed of sections dealing with birds, reptiles and amphibians; fish and insects and spiders. I’ve enjoyed many a solitary hour with these two terrific books.

The mammals book features four-page sections devoted to the black rhinoceros of Africa, which is really gray, and the Greater Indian Rhinoceros, or white rhino, found in India and Nepal.

The white rhinos of India grow a bit larger than their African brothers. The whites can reach a length of up to 14 feet and a weight of 4,800 pounds. The blacks stretch up to 12 feet and can weigh as much as 3,000 pounds. Both are protected, as well as human beings can do that job, but poachers do slip through and continue to take a toll. Unless, that is, they bump up against hungry lions who consider them prey.

The very existence of these wonderful beasts tells us they have a right to be where they are, doing what they’re doing, which is nothing except living and bothering nobody. They are not aggressive or mean and they are a threat to no one. Unfortunately for them, the adult rhinos have horns on their snouts that lawbreakers can profit by, after first killing the animals — killing a non-dangerous, 3,000-pound beast for a few pounds of horn, which is made out of the same substance that its hoofs are made of.

It’s a sad state of affairs, but there it is, and other large or rare mammals face the same situation, including the blue whale, the largest mammal ever to have lived on earth. My Fact-File says the blues can grow up to 100 feet in length (my goodness!) and can weigh as much as 285,000 pounds.

The six-ton African elephant is also living on the edge, because poachers with sophisticated machine guns value its ivy tusks. The African is the largest and most powerful of all living land mammals and, the book says, among the most gentle.

Mountain and lowland gorillas are on the brink of extinction, as are Bengal tigers, leopards and many others. It’s just a sad fact of life, I guess.

In days gone by, people had to hunt for food. Some still do, but now it’s for sport and, all too often, profit. Just my view, of course.