Wildlife officials in Narok, south-west Kenya, said he was the third lion to die after being poisoned in a suspected plot by Maasai herdsmen to stop the predators eating their cattle.
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Seventeen-year-old Bibi was the oldest lion filmed for BBC1’s Big Cat Diary, which ran from 1996 to 2008.
Two lions (not pictured) have died after being poisoned in Kenya’s Masai Mara game reserve.
Prosecutor Evans Gitonga did not prefer charges against Simindei Naurori and Kulangash Toposat, but asked they be remanded for 14 days to allow for investigation. They even have their own Facebook page, where the poisoning was confirmed.
“Lions generally can not coexist with humans, which is why protected areas are so vital”. BBC reports indicate that one of the lions, Bibi, a 17-year-old female, was found “foaming at the mouth, fitting and panting”. It is estimated that at least 100 lions are killed yearly.
“We labored around the clock to save lots of them however sadly they succumbed to poisoning”.
Earlier this year, another notable lion, known as Cecil, was killed by a trophy hunter in Zimbabwe, sparking an worldwide outcry.
In a statement Paula Kahumbu, chief executive of conservation group Wildlife Direct, condemned the poisoners as, “stupid, sick, cruel, and short-sighted people”.
‘The dead lions are feared to have consumed poisoned meat, ‘ said Paul Udoto, a spokesman for Kenya’s Wildlife Service.
Part of the reason the Marsh Pride was so popular with the public was that guides always knew where to find them, wrote Jonathan Scott, an English zoologist and coauthor of a book about them, in a blog post. There, young men emerge from temporary shelters just meters from the park boundary, stretching and yawning, about to begin their “day” of illegally herding livestock into the Reserve. Maasai landowners have seen their grazing lands restricted by land privatization and by agreements with wildlife conservancies, which have a strong record of successful wildlife conservation. They then use that money to buy more cows, but they have less land for those cows to graze on.
“The way it is now, herders are bringing their cattle there under cover of night, when lions are more likely to hunt, because it’s illegal”, Adams said.
In 2010 more than a dozen lions were killed through poisoning in the Maasai Mara park.
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The poisoning hasn’t only affected the lions but seems to have moved through the food chain.
