Three lions beheaded for muti

POACHERS have beheaded and chopped the paws off three male lions to use in traditional medicine, police said at the weekend.

The big cats were fed poisoned meat at a Tzaneen Lion and Predator Park in the country’s Limpopo province, before they were mutilated.

Police spokesman Moatshe Ngoepe said the poachers got into the park by cutting through three fences.

Traditional healers in the region are believed to be prepared to pay top prices for rare ingredients.

Park workers found the lions’ bodies and police followed a trail of blood from the site of the find to a main road, where the poachers apparently had a getaway vehicle waiting.

They are now hunting for the killers of the lions.

Game lodge owner Andre de Lange said it was the second time poachers had struck in six months.

De Lange said poachers had told him the animal parts were obtained on commission from traditional healers in nearby Mozambique.

Traditional healers use both herbal remedies and magic, which may involve animal parts, in the belief that this will help their clients solve problems, obtain wealth or have other benefits.

It is not known how the killers got through the security system surrounding the private game park, Ngoepe said.

It was not possible to contact park owner Andre de Lange, who media reports have quoted as saying that the killings may have been an inside job.

After entering the park, the killers cut the fence of the lion cage, Ngoepe said.

He declined to confirm reports that the lions had been poisoned, because the investigation is still ongoing.

Reports said the lion body parts may have been wanted for “muti”.

Ngoepe did not rule out the possibility of “muti” as a motive.

Reports say the three lions were worth R900 000.

The incident was the third of its kind since last year, when three lions were beheaded in the same area, Ngoepe said.

“We cannot confirm that the same people are behind all these killings, but the modus operandi is the same,” he added.

No arrests have been made in any of the cases so far.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, an African lion believed to be the oldest held in an American zoo has been euthanised.

The Philadelphia Zoo says its 25-year-old big cat named Zenda recently experienced a severe decline in mobility and normal behaviour.

She was euthanised on Thursday last week.

Zoo officials say Zenda was a popular and much-loved animal.

In announcing her death on Friday, the zoo noted that lions in zoos typically live about 17 years.

Zenda was born at the Johannesburg Zoo in 1991.

She arrived in Philadelphia two years later, along with three other lions.

The pride was relocated temporarily to the Columbus Zoo in 2004, returning to Philadelphia for the opening of the Big Cat Falls exhibit in 2006.

The Philadelphia Zoo has six other African lions. – Associated Press and DPA

We cannot say that the same people are behind all these killings