Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
claws of these animals. Individuals who survive an attack require appropriate antibiotic
therapy as well as attention to the trauma they have received.
Lions
Lions are the second largest of the big cats. Adult males range from 330 to 550 pounds.
Lionsusedtoroamallovertheworld,includingNorthAmericaandSouthAmericabutare
nowlimitedtosub-SaharanAfrica,exceptforasmallpopulationintheGirForestofnorth-
west India. Their numbers are declining, and they are in danger of extinction, particularly
the small Indian population, as the result of habitat loss and conflicts with humans. The
lions around Kilimanjaro face extermination from poisoning by Maasai protecting their
cattle.
Malelionswiththeirprominentmanesareamongtheworld'smostspectacularanimals.
Reportedlyalion'sroarcanbeheardasfarasfivemilesaway.Theycanrunasfastasthirty
miles per hour, perhaps faster, and are so strong they can take down prey three times their
size. They can break the neck of an ox with a single swipe of a forepaw. However, females
are more accomplished hunters. Males tend to be scavengers and may consume animals
killedbyafemalebeforeallowingthefemaletoeat.Accordingtosomeauthorities,hyenas
kill more animals than lions.
In the late 1930s through the late 1940s, in what is now Tanzania, a pride of lions over
threegenerationswasthoughttohavekilledandeaten1500to2000humans.Nowlionsare
responsible for 300 to 500 human deaths a year in Africa, and the numbers are increasing.
A sophisticated study in Tanzania found the human death rate has increased from forty a
year to seventy or more. Between 1990 and 2005, 563 Tanzanians were killed and at least
308 were injured. Attacks are most common in areas with the lowest abundance of natural
prey and with the largest numbers of bush pigs, which eat the farmers' crops.
Mozambican refugees crossing South Africa's Kruger National Park at night are reg-
ularly attacked and eaten by lions. Thousands may have been killed in the decades after
apartheid sealed the park and forced the refugees to cross the park at night. Before that,
Mozambicans had regularly walked across the park in daytime with little harm.
The lure of the easy kill even attracts lions in the prime of life, contrary to the finding
that most man-eaters are elderly or impaired animals with diminished hunting abilities. A
man-eater in the Rufiji district of Tanzania thought to have consumed approximately forty
people was found to be only about four years old when it was finally destroyed.
Lions, like other big cats, prefer to stalk their prey and attack from behind. According
to some hunters, a lion will break off its attack if the human turns and challenges it. Once
under attack, the most protective behavior has not been determined. Some survivors have
claimed that allowing the lion to chew on an arm or a leg may distract them from attacking
an individual's body.
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