Rangers fail to find lion spoor after KZN families report sighting
No spoor was detected when Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife field rangers attempted to track a lion pair near eShowe, KwaZulu-Natal, over the weekend, said the government conservation agency.
Three families in the Nembe area, which falls under the uMlalazi local municipality, had reported spotting a male and female lion over the weekend, which led Ezemvelo to immediately send its rangers to the area.
But Ezemvelo said no lion spoor was found during search operations, adding that the Nembe area has a hard surface, which would make it difficult to detect spoor.
“So far, Ezemvelo cannot confirm or deny the presence of lions. Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park (HiP), the [only nearby] game reserve with lions … is more than 100km away,” the conservation agency said in a statement.
It said that there had been no animal killings along the routes in the area, adding that it would be rare for a lion to walk more than 100km without killing livestock.
Ezemvelo’s communications manager, Musa Mntambo, said that aside from the alleged weekend sighting, there had been no recent reports of escaped wildlife as fencing had been improved.
“Where the lions used to escape in the past, we have repaired that area. [W]e have even recently received R40 million from the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment to strengthen our fences.”
Ezemvelo ecologist Dave Druce said he doubted the animals were lions, and if they were, it was doubtful they came from Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park. When lions had left the iMfolozi section of the park in the past, they had followed a river, he said.
He added that Ezemvelo had noted incidents of people keeping wild animals as pets in other provinces, and of wild animals escaping while being transported. Both had led to the agency being on heightened alert, he said.
“Ezemvelo cannot ignore such reports and must investigate any reports of dangerous wild animal sightings.”
Mntambo said that if there were escaped lions in Nembe, they would be captured by the agency’s game capture unit and transported back to their reserves. If, however, they had shown themselves as a threat to people, they would be euthanized.
In January this year, two tigers escaped their enclosures in residential areas of Johannesburg in separate incidents.
Sheba, one of the tigers, had to be put down after she attacked a man and killed two dogs.
Keeping wild and exotic animals as “pets” is poorly regulated and enforced in South Africa, provincial and national government departments, as well as the National Council of SPCAs, previously told the Mail & Guardian.