Pride of lions devour three poachers

JOHANNESBURG: In a cruel twist of fate, a pride of lions ate a group of poachers who broke into a game reserve earlier this week in South Africa to hunt rhinoceroses.

Three men were believed to have been eaten alive by the predators sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning after they entered the Sibuya Game Reserve in Kenton-on-Sea to hunt rhinos, Nick Fox, the park’s owner, told reporters. After the incident, authorities recovered the remains of their parts, three pairs of shoes, wire cutters, high-powered hunting rifles fitted with silencers and a type of ax that is commonly used by poachers to remove rhino horns.

“The only body part we found was one skull and one bit of pelvis, everything else was completely gone,” he said. “There is so little left that they don’t know exactly how many people were killed, we suspect three because we found three sets of shoes and three sets of gloves.” Fox also revealed that rhino poaching groups usually consist of three people.

Although Fox admitted that the incident was sad, he also noted that it should send a “message” to other poachers who risk their lives to hunt game in his reserve.

At around 4.30 am on Monday morning, one of Sibuya’s anti-poaching dogs gave her handler a warning that something was wrong. The handler then heard a commotion from the lions but didn’t investigate as there usually is around the early hours. This is when authorities believed the incident occurred.

One day later, one of the reserve’s rangers then stumbled upon the remains of the poachers. After immediately alerting the police, the staffers decided to continue their investigation the next morning as it was getting dark. On Wednesday, Sibuya employees and police found the poachers’ gear scattered through the thick bushes.

“They [found] an ax and highpowered rifle with a silencer, which is a surefire sign of rhino poachers,” Fox said.