Poacher swallowed by pride

A POACHER was trampled to death by an elephant before his remains were devoured by a pride of lions inside a game park.

The man was believed to be hunting rhino with other poachers in South Africa’s 19,424sq km Kruger National Park when he was trampled by the elephant.

Rather than carry his body home, and slow themselves down, fellow hunters left him close to where he died.

“His accomplices claimed to have carried his body to the road so that passers-by could find it in the morning. They then vanished from the park,” a police spokesman said.

Four of the other poachers have since been arrested and confessed what happened to the man’s family in a phone call.

The relatives then called officials, who began looking for his remains.

Following a two-day search, only a human skull and the man’s trousers were found. A pride of lions is believed to have eaten the man, who has not been named, after he was crushed in the Crocodile Bridge section of the vast park.

Kruger National Park is popular with tourists and poachers as it contains the “Big Five” safari animals – lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants and buffaloes.