man on safari eaten by lions

Graphic video as Brit survives lion attack

Wednesday 2 May 2018 09:18, UK

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Horrifying moment Brit wildlife park owner is savaged and dragged into enclosure by lion

WARNING - DISTRESSING CONTENT Onlookers were left petrified by a huge lion when the savage creature dragged British Mike Hodge into its territory and hurtled towards him leaving him with severe injuries

• 22:17, 4 May 2022

This is the horrifying moment a British safari park owner is savaged and dragged away by a lion into its enclosure.

The distressing footage of British man Mike Hodge being attacked by the lion has remerged online after the incident at Makarele Predator Centre in South Africa in 2018.

Horrified onlookers were left screaming in terror as Mr Hodge was savagely thrown around and dragged around like a rag doll by the ferocious lion.

Mike had entered the cage while another park keeper had come forward with a small bucket in his hand and looked to be coaxing the lion towards the edge.

However, the lion then spots the man in its territory and launches towards him leaving him terrified about what's to happen next.

In the footage, Mr Hodge is seeing running towards a door of the enclosure.

But the huge male lion pounces and knocks him to the ground.

Mike is on the floor, not moving, and onlookers cry for help.

In the scary footage, gun shots can be seen being fired into the air to distract the lion.

However, a ranger was forced to shoot dead the lion after he refused to move away from the 72-year-old following warning shots.

Amazingly, Mike survived the traumatic attack after being airlifted by air ambulance for life saving surgery.

In the hospital photo it showed Mike smiling in his hospital bed with a bandage on his neck and a breathing tube after the terrifying ordeal.

His injuries were a severe bite and claw wounds to his neck and back and a broken jaw in the 2018 attack.

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Pit Dernitz –the man tore to pieces by a lion

Wandering here and there I came across a movie and more precisely a world movie, a documentary film dealing with strong themes intended to shock the viewer. Very famous in the 60s and 70s, the genre is named after the movie “Mondo Cane” (A Dog’s World) which was followed by many others.

The movie I saw was called “Savage Man Savage Beast”, from 1975, famous for the violent scenes in general, but for one in particular:  a man tore to pieces by a lion . It is said that the sequence was real and that man in question was Dernitz Pit.

The incident: man tore to pieces by a lion

The incident occurred on Feb. 18th, 1975 in the Wallasee natural park in Angola. The sequence shows various tourists cars on safari, busy photographing the animals of the savanna.

At some point Pit Dernitz decides to get out of the vehicle to better shoot lions and at this point is attacked. The other tourists continue to film, powerless, and the man is devoured by the big cats under the eyes of his wife and children.

This scene created a bit debate not only for the great violence and the strong impact it has on the audience, but also because some believe it could be a fake and not a real scene.

True or false?

Anyone who thinks that this is a fake, meaning the scene was acted out, points out some inconsistencies.

• There are no news from newspapers or television reporting of a man named Pit Dernitz devoured by a lion.
• There is no natural park in Angola called Wallasee
• There are a lot of movie gimmicks in the filming, such as zooms and cuts on the relatives in tears
• No one intervenes to save the man, for example by driving the car to scare the lions away
• How did the rescue team managed toget there shortly after the incident, as at the time there were no mobiles?

Those who think this is a real movie respond to these objections with the following points:

• It was never in the news because the film had gathered much more attention and it’s easier to find news on the documentary rather than the event in itself  Besides, it’s normal to think that the family wanted to talk about it as little as possible.
• Perhaps a natural park called Wallasee existed in the ’70s and now has changed its name, or the name was reported incorrectly.
• The zoomis only used to better document the scene
• The film says that the car could not be used because of the terrain.
• Surely the guides were equipped with radio transmitters.

What I have noticed is that there are actually no existing news or newspaper articles on this Pit Dernitz.

The only thing I found, apart from the mention in the Wikipedia page of the movie, is a page of the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) where Pit appears as “actor died devoured by lions in 1975”.

Some say that being on IMDb under “actor” proves that the incident is a hoax concocted well. I believe instead that he is on that page simply because he starred, voluntarily or not, on a film.

Considerations

No one actually knows if the movie is real or  not, the issue is still hotly debated. I personally can say that the first time I saw it I thought it was true.

The name, place and date have made it all the more real, but remember that those were the years of the world movies, where everything was permitted to shock the viewer. 

Remember how in “Cannibal Holocaust” the actors, including a young age Luca Barbareschi, had been forced to “disappear ” for a while after filming it to make people think that they were actually dead?

But still, if in “Cannibal Holocaust” we discovered the trick, why did the same thing not happen for “Savage Man Savage Beast”?

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11 comments.

The car number plates are Rhodesian. I was at school in Rhodesia in 1975 and I remember reading about this incident. Some tourists (Belgian or French I seem to recall) did go to the Lion and Cheetah Park, just outside Salisbury (now Harare). A man got out of the car to get pictures and was attacked and killed by lions. The L&C Park is still going in Zimbabwe at the same place outside Harare. It is a small fenced enclosure of a few acres and you can drive through in your own vehicle (dont need a 4×4). BUT there are lots of warnings to not get out of your car. These European tourists seem to have ignored the sign and paid a terrible price. The old cars are the types that were available in Rhodesia at the time. Timelinewise this was just as the Bush War was hotting up.

The vehicle Pitt got out of was a Renault R4. The one next to it was a R6. There was an old Chevrolet’ Impala. Alll had Rhodesian plates. I distinctly recall this incident being reported and seeing pictutes in the now defunct Scope Magazine and also a report in the Sunday Times. I cannot recall where it took place. The Lion and Cheetah park outside the then Salisbury is a distinct possibility.

Thank you very much for these new elements!

Wouldn’t there be blood on the Lion’s jaws?

The plates are not from Rhodesia. The plates are from Namibia. Have a look http://worldlicenseplates.com/

Senoslav, number plates change all the time. You can’t say with any certainty that these are ‘not’ Rhodesian plates. Put it into another context of identification; Ian Smith, what do you know about him, without looking it up!

Don’t really care one way or another ,he was silly to get out of his vehicle but I hope the lion was ok tho

I see people claiming it to be fake because of the person being listed as an actor on imdb. Any real person that appears on a movie or documentary is regarded as an actor by the site, regardless of being a professional thespian or simply someone granting an interview of caught by a camera, so it proves nothing.

How about a third hypothesis?

Maybe there is at least some degree of truth to the story. Maybe it realy happened, even if not exactly as depicted on the film.

Maybe the movie attempt to re-enact (in a staged way) one event that actually has taken place. The footage may be faked, edited, manufactured, but the story that they were trying to portray may be real.

This would be nothing new.

Yes, it would relegate the movie to be labelled as fake in the sense that it pretends to be real, with authentic footage, while it wouldnt be the case.

People and names may have been changed, but I do see a false dichotomy being presented.

People think that if they are somehow able to discovery files from papers dealing with this issue then the movie scene must be real. This isnt a necessary conclusion. Maybe the event really did take place and somehow the movie makes did caught word of it. Maybe the original footage (IFit existed) was unable to be used for a reason (bad quality, objections from the family, whatever motive…) so they simply decided to stage their own version of it and try to present if as real, found footage that was used on a trial.

This could actually make a lot of sense, because a superficial analysis could indicate that the movie was in indeed real simply because there would be reports of such an attack. it would lend false credence to the movie.

Sometimes moviemakers will do that. Present their own re-enactements of real events, or versions based on modern urban legends.

It was a real event. I remember it well. It was reported in the Uk press at the time with a number of papers carrying the story. There were many photos though of course no film in those days. One photo showed his arm sticking up above the lions and his thumb and first two fingers had been bitten off. A lot the people trying to say it waa fake were not born then.

Yes I watched the video and yes it is absolutely real, the man’s first mistake was being NAIVE, his second mistake was he crouched downward not that he still not of been attacked because yes he would of the lion behind him which he did not notice viewed him as another wondering animal. All the lions acted the way lions act when they just made a kill the female try to eat as quickly as they can because they know once the male sees the kill he will take over and that’s exactly what happened. This man made a fatal decision the lions seen him as another easy opportunity to eat. I’m very good with picking out real videos and fake and this is absolutely real and I felt so bad for the man and his family. The lions should have been shot in 1975 because once they tasted human blood they would have killed again and again.

Liam Katt, what the press reported was sourced by the film but there’s no actual source outside that. My take is that it is fake because it’s a Mondo type film which are mostly fake.

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Briton, 19, is killed and eaten by pride of lions

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A STARVING, injured lioness and apparent errors by a safari guide led to a British public schoolboy being killed and eaten after being dragged screaming from his tent in the early hours of Sunday.

David Pleydell-Bouverie, 19, was acting as an apprentice guide on a photographic walking safari in Zimbabwe when a pride of lions, led by a lioness with a broken leg, attacked looking for easy food. Game rangers found parts of his dismembered body up to 20 metres from his tent, and confirmed that some of his clothing and body parts were found inside the stomachs of two of the lions which had been tracked and shot.

The teenager, who was the nephew of the Earl of Radnor, was having an extended stay in Zimbabwe during his gap year after leaving Harrow school last year. He was due to start a history degree at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in October.

His grieving father, Richard Pleydell-Bouverie, the High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, described the killing as the "most unbearable and appalling tragedy". His mother, Victoria, is expected to arrive today at the Changachirere Camp where the tragedy happened, part of the Matusadona National Park, 300 miles north-west of Harare.

The British High Commission has sent diplomats to the area to monitor the investigation into the attack.

A spokesman for the wildlife police service in Harare, said last night: "This particular pride is one that is often seen by tourists in the area and there has been no history of man-eating attacks in the past.

"But the group was led by an old she-lion who was struggling with a broken leg. We believe she attacked out of hunger, the camp provided a relatively straightforward target."

Bradley Fouche, the guide with the group who was sharing a tent with the young man, set fire to his shirt to scare away the lions after being woken by screams at 1am. His rifle was in a vehicle 100 yards away.

The guide was also criticised for sleeping in a tent away from the main group of tourists, and for having the tent flaps unzipped. Lions will not attack a tent if they cannot see inside it. He is expected to face disciplinary charges and could lose his professional licence.

Last night the head of the safari company spoke of his shock and sadness at the death. "David was in the company of a highly respected guide with a reputation for steadiness and safety," said Ivan Carter, of Ivan Carter Safari."This has been an extremely tragic event and the first time a person has been killed in this manner on a photographic safari."

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The Most Ferocious Man-Eating Lions

Africa’s lions may usually prey on zebras or giraffes, but they also attack humans, with some lions responsible for over 50 deaths

Abigail Tucker

In encounters with the king of beasts, an unarmed person is “one of the most helpless creatures,” notes Charles Guggisberg in Simba: the Life of the Lion. “Man cannot run as fast as a zebra or a gazelle, he has not the horns of the sable antelope or the tusks of the warthog, and he cannot deal terrific blows like the giraffe.” People are, in other words, easy pickings. Even though Africa’s lion populations have been drastically reduced in the past decades, lions still regularly eat people; it’s not uncommon for them to kill more than 100 people a year in Tanzania alone.

Many man-eaters are wounded or old; some have been deprived of natural prey sources; others may simply have developed a fondness for human flesh. Most are nameless, but a few of the most notorious have been rather colorfully christened: Namvelieza, or The Cunning One, killed 43 people near Kasawa, Zambia. Tanzania’s Paper Lion got his name because he seemed to drift from victim to victim randomly, like a scrap of paper floating in the breeze.

This list of the most famous man-eaters includes mostly males, but females are actually responsible for more killings, according to University of Minnesota lion expert Craig Packer. However, lionesses tend to eat people in isolated instances, then return to their normal diet, while males “are more likely to become recidivists,” Packer says. The worst-case scenario, he says, is when a whole pride of males and females starts feeding on people: these lions are the most “persistent” threat to their human neighbors.

Chiengi Charlie This man-eater—missing half his tail and so light-colored that he was also known as “the White Lion”—haunted Chiengi, the British post on the border of what was then Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), in 1909. “In the district in which he carried on his nefarious practices Charlie (became) a celebrity, almost an institution,” according to one account. “He was alluded to with the almost affectionate familiarity with which some people speak of the devil.” He eventually teamed up with two other males to feed on the inhabitants of several villages. Charlie and his partners reportedly ate 90 people, including the servant of a hunter sent to destroy him. He eluded all manner of traps and the best marksmen in the country (though one village woman managed to beat him off with a firebrand as he clawed through the mud wall of her hut.) He was finally shot in a gun trap.

Osama Osama terrorized Rufiji, Tanzania, from 2002 to 2004; he was accused of killing more than 50 people from eight villages. Part of a pride of males and females, Osama likely didn’t kill alone, but he was the lion villagers singled out to star in billboard-size depictions of the bloody deeds (according to Tanzanian lion scientist Dennis Ikanda, the lion was named after Osama bin Laden, whose terrorist attacks made headlines even in rural Tanzania.) Osama was just 3 1/2 years old when game scouts shot him in April of 2004. Some have blamed his eating habits on a large abscess on one of his molars, but, according to Packer, whose research team studied the case, plenty of man-eaters have perfect teeth. Osama “probably got started when his mother started eating people,” Packer says.

Msoro Monty Though historically rich in wild game, the Luangwa River Valley in eastern Zambia has produced a series of fearsome man-eaters. In 1929, one began stalking victims near the Msoro Mission, which furnished his alliterative nickname. “Msoro Monty” never lost his knack for sniffing out traps. After killing a large number of people, he disappeared without a trace.

Lion of Mfuwe This cat terrorized Zambia’s Luangwa River Valley—near Msoro Monty’s old stamping grounds—in 1991. After killing at least six people, the lion strutted through the center of a village, reportedly carrying a laundry bag that had belonged to one of his victims. A California man on safari, after waiting in a hunting blind for 20 nights, later shot and killed him. The lion was more than ten feet long and, like the famous Tsavo lions, totally maneless. His body is on display at Chicago’s Field Museum.

Tsavo Lions Hollywood darlings and arguably the most famous of the man-eaters, the Tsavo lions have been the subject of several movies—including  Bwana Devil  (1952) and  The Ghost and the Darkness  (1996)—and many books. The pair of males was accused of devouring some 140 workers along Kenya’s Tsavo River, where crews were building a railroad bridge in 1898. Hundreds of workers fled, halting construction; the project’s chief engineer finally hunted down both lions, and the bridge was completed in 1899. Recent analysis of the lions’ hair and bones suggest that the lions likely ate only about 35 people.

The Man-Eaters of Njombe The most prolific of the man-eaters, this pride of 15 claimed hundreds of lives—perhaps as many as 1,500—of lives between 1932 and 1947 in southern Tanzania. “The renowned man-eaters of Tsavo were very small fry compared to what these proved to be,” wrote George Rushby, the British game warden charged with stopping them. Prior to the pride’s bloody spree, the colonial government had reduced the numbers of prey animals in the area in an effort to control a rinderpest outbreak that was destroying cattle herds. The hungry lions quickly settled on human flesh as a substitute. Unlike most lions, the Njombe pride did its killing in the afternoon, using the night hours to travel as far as 15 or 20 miles to an unsuspecting village. Rushby believed that the cats actually used a relay system to drag bodies into the safety of the bush. He finally hunted down and shot the lions.

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Abigail Tucker | READ MORE

A frequent contributor to Smithsonian , Abigail Tucker is the author of The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World and Mom Genes: Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct . More information is available at her website: abigailtucker.com

Man mauled to death by lion at Accra Zoo in Ghana

A man has been mauled to death by a lion after entering its enclosure at a zoo in Ghana.

Key points:

• The man reportedly climbed a tall mesh fence to enter the enclosure 
• A lion, a lioness and two cubs were in the enclosure 
• Authorities say it is a warning to people visiting with ulterior motives

The man climbed over a tall mesh fence and entered the enclosure of a lion, a lioness and two cubs at Accra Zoo on Sunday, the state Forestry Commission said. 

His motivation has yet to be determined and police are investigating .

"The intruder was attacked and injured by one of the lions, within the fencing of the enclosure," the commission said.

Chief executive of the Forestry Commission John Allotey said a manager saw the man being held on the neck by the lion. 

"He quickly informed his superiors and the case was reported to the Achimota police," Mr Allotey said. 

He said the two lions and the cubs were all in their enclosures and had not escaped. 

Lions are a top attraction at Accra Zoo, where reinforced mesh fencing allows visitors to view the predators up close.

Ghanaian politician Benito Owusu Bio questioned the man's intention. 

"Why would somebody try to enter, scale the fence … and to do what?" he said. 

"If you are going for the cubs, the lioness and the male will protect their cubs.

"Please, this is a warning to people who have other intentions and ulterior motives … this is a no-go area."

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Tsavo Lions: The Man-Eating Lions

The two lions that killed 135 people nine months.

Tsavo is a region of Kenya with a history of two male lions that became man-eaters, killing and eating over 100 people – the highest ever number of human deaths recorded by lions. Unsurprisingly these two lions became known as Tsavo’s man-eating lions.

While lions are amongst the most dangerous animals in Africa , very few lions earn a reputation for being man-eaters, so what was it about these two Tsavo lions that gave them such notoriety? To understand this we’ll need to go back to 1898…

The story of the man-eaters of Tsavo

In early 1898 British soldier, hunter, and author Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson was sent to oversee the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya’s large and wild Tsavo region.

Construction of a railway in this part of Kenya was planned to connect Uganda with the Indian Ocean at Kilindini Harbour, to improve the infrastructure and extend the power of the British Empire in Africa .

Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson

Before Patterson’s arrival to supervise the construction work rumors of ‘killers lions’ had already started circulating.

In March 1898, just a few short days after his arrival, news of some missing workers appeared at Patterson’s desk. At first, he took no action, but as the day passed, news of more workers disappearing came through, and the rumors turned out to be a reality. There were a pair of maneless male lions stalking the railway construction workers campsite at night and dragging people from their tents as they slept.

After these incidents in March, there was a period of calm with no lion attacks. However, a couple of months later the pair of Tsavo lions returned and started attacking again, this time with increasing intensity. Despite the worker’s attempts to ward off the lions with campfires and thorn fences, the attacks continued to the point where they were happening every night.

As a keen writer, Patterson documented all of the happenings in Tsavo, which was later published in  his book , The Man-eaters of Tsavo (1907). He noted that at the start of the attacks only one lion at a time would enter the camp to take a victim, but as the weeks and months went on the lions became more brazen, both walking together into camp to seize a victim each.

Killing the Tsavo lions

At this point workers were fleeing from Tsavo and the bridge construction was put on hold. British colonial support arrived with reinforcements of 20 armed men to hunt and kill the lions, with traps set and men hiding in trees to ambush them.

On 9th December 1898, Patterson shot one of the lions in its hind leg. It escaped, however, and came back to camp that same evening and began stalking Patterson as he tried to hunt it. Patterson shot the lion again, and the next morning found its dead body not far from camp. It measured 2.95 meters from nose to the tip of its tail.

Twenty days later, on 29th December the second lion was found and shot six times over the course of 11 days. Patterson claimed the lion died gnawing on a fallen tree branch, still trying to reach him.

Patterson with the first of the lions he killed

The total number of people the two lions killed was never verified, though in his book Patterson states that in all 135 people were eaten.

“ Between them no less than 28 Indian coolies, in addition to scores of unfortunate African natives of whom no official record was kept… “

The aftermath of the Tsavo lion attacks

Once the Tsavo lions were both killed the construction workers returned and finished the bridge in February 1899. The story had caused such a commotion in both Kenya and the United Kingdom that Lord Salisbury, the UK Prime Minister at the time, spoke in Parliament about the incident:

“The whole of the works were put to a stop because a pair of man-eating lions appeared in the locality and conceived a most unfortunate taste for our workmen. At last the labourers entirely declined to carry on unless they were guarded by iron entrenchments. Of course it is difficult to work a railway under these conditions and until we found an enthusiastic sportsman to get rid of these lions our enterprise was seriously hindered”

Chicago’s Field Museum has the bodies of two lions on display.

Col John Henry Patterson turned the two maneless lions into rugs for his house, where they remained as trophies until 1925 when he sold them both to the Field Museum during a trip to Chicago. Taxidermy experts at the Field Museum restored the lions and turned the two rugs into rather good looking exhibits, placing them in a diorama where they’re still on display today .

X-ray imaging of the lions’ remains found that they both suffered from dental issues. One of the lions had a severe root-tip abscess in one canine tooth. As a result, researchers believe that the lions started preying on humans for the practical reason that they were easier to catch and chew.

Many years later the Field Museum bought a third man-eating lion from Mfuwe, Zambia, killing and eating six people in 1991. This specimen is also on display in the museum.

In addition to the accounts written by Colonel Patterson, and later Bruce Patterson, there are a number of films based on this incredible story such as The Ghost and the Darkness . (See more safari movies .)

Why did the Tsavo lions start eating humans?

According to Bruce Patterson in his 2004 book The Lions of Tsavo: Exploring the Legacy of Africa’s Notorious Man-Eaters , these lions started hunting men for one or more of these four reasons:

• In 1898, an outbreak of cattle plague left the lions with no food. They had to find some other food source, and they turned to humans.
• The lions may have developed an appetite for humans from eating dead men found in the Tsavo River region.
• The Hindus working on the railway had cremations for their dead, which may have initiated scavenging by the lions.
• Severe dental disease meant that the lions migrated to humans as prey that was easier to catch and chew.

Want to know what lions usually eat?

Two mordern day Tsavo lions

Frequently asked questions about the killer lions of Tsavo

Why were the lions maneless.

The two lions were maneless for biological factors. It is not that they are special – there are many male lions that are maneless. As the popular depiction of a lion shows it with a gracious mane, we are accustomed to this image. In reality, it’s not unusual for a male lion to be maneless.

How big were the Tsavo man-eating lions?

According to John Henry Patterson’s book The Man-eaters of Tsavo , the first lion was 2.95 meters long from nose to tip of the tail and took eight men to carry it back to the campsite. There is no reference made in the book about the size of the second lion, but the two were more or less similar in size to other adult male lions living in that region.

Who killed the man-eating lions of Tsavo?

Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson killed the man-eating lions of Tsavo in December 1898. The first lion was killed on 9 December 1898 and the second lion was killed after 20 days.

Why did the Tsavo lions kill?

The two lions killed men for several reasons. According to the latest theories regarding the man-eating nature of the lions, they couldn’t find enough food for the cattle plague in the region in 1898.

Where is Tsavo?

Tsavo is a large, wild area in southeast Kenya . The location of the bridge over the Tsavo River is very close to the confluence of the Tsavo and Athi-Galana-Sabaki rivers, an area the local African tribe the Kamba people call the ‘place of slaughter’. This name is a reference to the many tribal conflicts that have occurred in the area over the years, rather than the Tsavo lions… but the name ‘place of slaughter’ is particularly apt given the number of people the two lions killed.

The region is now home to two large national parks – Tsavo East and Tsavo West.

And that’s your lot for the man-eaters of Tsavo. What do you think of their incredible story? Please do join in using the comments section below!

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A male lion in Hwange National Park, where a tour guide was killed. Hwange was also home to Cecil the lion.

Tour Guide Killed in Lion Attack Did Everything Right

There's little a person can do in the face of Africa's top predator, experts say.

The tour guide killed by a lion while on a walking safari in Zimbabwe 's Hwange National Park did everything right in responding to the attack, according to experts—but he still paid the ultimate price

Quinn Swales, 40, a professional guide, was leading a group of six tourists in the park—the former home of Cecil the lion —when they came upon a pride. The male lion got up and began approaching the tour group.

"As he had done numerous times in his career, Quinn immediately briefed his guests on what to expect and instructed them to get behind him and not move," Camp Hwange, a safari camp in the park, said in a Facebook statement announcing the death .

After Quinn and the group shouted and set off a “bear banger”—an instrument that makes a loud noise like a gunshot—the lion seemed to retreat, only to double back suddenly and attack Quinn. He died on site.

"The guide who lost his life did his job: Placing himself between tourists under his care and a source of danger," Luke Dollar , program director for National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative, says in an email.

Dollar says the park should review whether it was wise to place the guide in that vulnerable situation, particularly when there was a safer option of watching the animals from a vehicle.

However, he adds that "walking safaris themselves are generally and widely done safely and responsibly."

"I don't expect this will lead to a major change in whether walking safaris continue to be a common offering in safari experiences," he adds.

"What this incident will hopefully do, however, is serve as an important reminder that safety—in any endeavor—should always be of paramount concern."

Top Predator

Dollar adds that the male lion was doing what it evolved to do.

"Almost any organism around lions might be a potential prey item, and for people to think that they are an exception is folly," Dollar said in a previous interview following a fatal lion attack in South Africa in June .

"I would imagine that every other primate that co-exists with big cats is acutely aware of the position they hold relative to the top predators of the world." (Also see " California Death Prompts Questions About Lion Attacks .")

Dollar says danger arises when people allow themselves to be lulled into a false sense of security in the presence of lions or other carnivores.

"We don't have claws or big canines or size as an advantage," he says.

Respect the King of the Jungle

Dollar estimates that dozens, if not hundreds, of people are attacked by lions each year.

In the wild, old or sick lions may target people because they cannot catch their normal prey, and people are generally easier gets.

"If a person is standing next to an impala and a lion decides it's going to eat something, that impala is probably going to get away and that person is probably not." ( Learn more about big cats and their behaviors .)

That said, people should not be afraid to observe lions in the wild, Dollar said, but should know that they might be viewed as potential prey and to act accordingly.

"We need to remember that we call these animals the kings of the jungle for a reason," says Dollar. "We need to respect what they are and their natural behaviors."

With reporting by Mary Bates. Follow Christine Dell'Amore on Twitter and Google+ .  

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The story of the man-eating lions of Tsavo

The story of the man-eating lions of Tsavo : The largest national park in Kenya and among the largest in the world is Tsavo National Park , which is spread over almost 22,000 km². The Nairobi to Mombasa highway serves as the division line between Tsavo West and Tsavo East , the two distinct regions that make up the Park due to its immense size. On a kenya safari , the experiences in the two regions differ.

Tsavo National Park is the perfect location for anyone looking to mix the excitement of a Kenya safari with some leisurely beach time because it is fairly close to Mombasa—less than 100 kilometres away.  For visitors who are seeking a two-centre Kenya safari vacation, combining a visit to Tsavo with a stay in the Amboseli National Park is also quite simple. Most likely, Tsavo is best known for its red elephants and man-eating lions. Continue reading this article to know more about the story of the man-eating lions of Tsavo

Man Easters of Tsavo National Park

Many construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway perished at the hands of a pair of man-eating male lions known as the Tsavo Man-Eaters, who lived in the Tsavo region of Kenya between March and December 1898. 28 people were allegedly killed by the lion couple. Although the British public’s fear of man-eating lions was not new, the Tsavo Man-Eaters became one of the most well-known examples of the threats faced by Indian and native African workers on the Uganda Railway. Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson, who later wrote a semi-biography titled The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, killed them. Patterson wrote about his hunting experiences.

Given their habit of hunting humans in pairs and the dental injuries that have been reported in one of the lions—a cause that is frequently attributed to big cats turning to humans as prey—the Tsavo Man-Eaters are currently the most extensively studied man-eating pantherine cats.

The story of the man-eating lions of Tsavo : How the lions were killed

In March 1898, the British began building a railway bridge across the Tsavo River in Kenya as part of their project to build a railway that would connect Uganda with the Indian Ocean at Kilindini Harbour. The construction site, which employed several thousand mostly Indian labourers, was made up of multiple camps spanning an area of eight miles (13 km). Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson oversaw the project; he arrived a few days prior to the start of the killings and disappearances. Two mane less male Tsavo lions prowled the campsite for the next nine months while construction was ongoing, dragging labourers from their tents at night and feeding them. The attacks stopped for several months, but rumours of similar attacks by lions spread to other nearby settlements. After the lions came back, the attacks became more vicious and the deaths were nearly daily. In an attempt to keep the man-eaters out of their camp, crews constructed campfires, bomas, or thorn fences made of whistling thorn trees.

However, their efforts were ineffective, since the lions were able to leap over or squeeze through the thorn fences. Patterson observed that in the early stages of their murdering rampage, a lone lion would approach populated regions and capture victims; but, as time went on, they became more bold, entering in groups and capturing victims one by one. Bridge construction came to an abrupt halt as hundreds of workers fled Tsavo as the attacks intensified. Colonial officials started to step in at this moment. Patterson claims that even Mr. Whitehead, the District Officer, came dangerously close to being killed by a lion after showing up at the Tsavo rail depot in the evening. However, Whitehead managed to escape with four claw lacerations running down his back, while his assistant, Abdullah, was killed.

Eventually, more officials showed up to help with the hunt, bringing with them about twenty armed Sepoys.80–81  Patterson set traps and attempted multiple times to ambush the lions at night from a tree. Eventually, on December 9, 1898, he shot the first lion, measuring 9 ft 8 in (2.95 m) from nose to tip of tail. The first lion was found and killed twenty days later. It took eight men to carry the lion carcass back to camp.

According to Patterson’s story, he used a single bullet from a high-caliber rifle to injure the first lion. The lion was hit in the hind leg by this bullet, but it managed to flee. Afterwards, when Patterson went to hunt it, it came back at night and started following him. The following morning, he discovered it dead not far from his platform after shooting it through the shoulder and striking its heart with a more potent weapon.

Nine shots were fired at the second lion, five of which were from the same gun, three from a second rifle, and one from a third rifle. Six of the shots hit their target. The initial shot was fired from atop a scaffold Patterson had erected next to a goat that the lion had killed. Eleven days later, as the lion stalked Patterson and attempted to escape, it was hit by two bullets from a second gun. The lion was seriously crippled when Patterson shot it three more times with the same gun when they located it the following day. Patterson then shot it three times with a third rifle—twice in the chest and once in the head—to kill it. He said it was still trying to get to him when it died, nibbling on a fallen tree branch.

The two lion specimens housed in the Field Museum of Chicago are designated as FMNH 23970, which is the ‘standing’ mount that was slain on December 9, 1898, and FMNH 23969, which is the ‘crouching’ mount that was killed on December 29, 1898. 2009 saw the publication of recent research on the isotopic signature analysis of Δ13C and Nitrogen-15 in their keratin and collagen in their hair. By making practical assumptions about the amount of consumable tissue each victim, the lions’ energy requirements, and their absorption rates, scientists compared the Δ13C signatures of the man-eaters to a range of reference standards:

Prey (I) (2007)

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• Habari za Kenya Swahili

Man Runs into Lions, Leaves Netizens Apprehensive after Using a Stick for Protection

• A TikTokker shared a video of himself and safari guides walking with lions and using a stick for protection
• People in the video's comment section feared for their safety and shared their thoughts on the situation
• An owner of a lion sanctuary shared that the interaction with the wild animals was a form of exploitation

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A man touring South Africa's natural beauty found himself walking with lions, and all he had to protect himself was a stick.

In a video shared on the TikTok account @aroundtheworldwithtony , Tony showcased the lions he met on his walk.

How did he gather courage against the lions?

When the big cats are first seen in the distance, they quickly run towards him as if they were raring to attack.

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With a stick in hand and waiting for the lions' arrival, the guide calmly joked and said:

"Whenever they look at you, you must always smile because lions like happy meals."

Once another guide catches up with the group, they start to walk with the lions in front of them.

"They came running right towards us, but I had a stick for protection," Tony captioned his experience with the lions.

Watch the video below:

Is it right to use sticks against lions?

Paul Hart, the owner of Drakenstein Lion Park sanctuary, stated that interactions with wild animals are "exploitation at its worst."

He also said there is no conservation value in breeding lions in captivity. Speaking about the use of sticks for protection, Paul shared that the lions are habituated to using sticks as a deterrent from a young age, having been beaten with said sticks.

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According to him, the fear of the stick stays with them as they grow older.

"It is disingenuous for any rational person to think that a mere stick would ward off a lion attack. Nature is full of sticks and lions do not live in fear from those. The activity is nothing more than a circus act at the expense of the animals."

Social media reactions

Raking in over 4.3 million views, the video attracted thousands to the comment section.

@quibaby89 told online users:

"The day those lions figure out those sticks won’t do anything, you’re toast."

@vessel_servant1 joked and said:

"That stick will end up being the lions' toothpick afterwards."

Afraid, @gklsecph.clgdefhl noted:

"Even if you are related to the lions, I'm staying in the car."

@yonstarsgarage said of the video:

"They may not be rich, but they live a life of kings to experience a bond like this."

Trans Nzoia: Farmers Count Losses After Unknown People Steal, Butcher Cows at Night

Commenting on what the guide said about the lions jumping on each other, @rose25baby stated:

"He said that's how they develop their hunting skills. Bathong, from that I would be running because no man, what if I am a part of the development?"

Bold Isiolo couple wrestle lion in forest

In an unrelated article, a marauding lion nearly ended the lives of a couple on Tuesday, February 6, in a forest in Isiolo County .

The animal first attacked the man before going for his wife, injuring her in the legs; the man used a machete to fight it off.

They were admitted to the Isiolo County Teaching and Referral Hospital for treatment after the vicious fight.

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Source: Briefly.co.za

Jackson Otukho (Copyeditor) Jackson Otukho is a multi-media journalist and current affairs editor at TUKO.co.ke. In 2019, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Media Science from Moi University. He has over six years of experience in digital and print media. He initially worked as a news editor at Standard Media Group (2017) and Citizen TV (2019). Through his career, he has won several awards, including the editor with the cleanest copy and with the most social media engagement. Mail: [email protected]

Hillary Lisimba (Human-Interest editor) Hillary Lisimba Ambani is a responsive journalist who creates content that touches lives. After graduating from the University of Nairobi’s School of Journalism, he worked in Print, Broadcast, and Online media. He is a published author, former KBC producer, and former Daily Nation columnist. He is currently a human-interest editor and philanthropist. Media Council of Kenya Member No: MCK019108. Share your Human Interest stories with him at [email protected]. or find him on Facebook.

How Putin Got a Man Mauled to Death by a Lion

Cameras were on hand to witness the extraordinary lives—and deaths—at the Feldman Ecopark, which suddenly found itself in the middle of a war.

Britt Collins

Dodging Russian bullets and bombs, zookeepers and volunteers—who were risking their lives to save big cats, bears, apes and thousands of other creatures at a besieged Ukrainian zoo—captured hearts worldwide. The Feldman Ecopark in Kharkiv had been shelled relentlessly since the conflict began on Feb. 24, 2022. Throughout it all, a handful of fearless park staff stayed to care for the animals caught in the crossfire.

The compelling new documentary Checkpoint Zoo chronicles the extraordinary courage and compassion of a small group of men and women scrambling to evacuate 5,000 terrified and starving animals trapped in the zoo behind enemy lines.

Two years ago as the drama around Feldman Ecopark was unfolding, filmmaker Joshua Zeman had just finished filming The Loneliest Whale when he was captivated by the haunting image of a chimpanzee named Chichi walking alone around Freedom Square in Kharkiv. “Seeing this animal searching for his freedom or enjoying that freedom of escaping a zoo, while here you have this country that was under siege and fighting for its freedom and its own sovereignty immediately drew me,” he told The Daily Beast.

That solitary chimp led him to the ecopark in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, just 15 miles from the Russian border. By coincidence, the documentary is due to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival next month just as war returns to the Kharkiv region in President Vladimir Putin’s latest offensive . “It was the first time I filmed in a conflict zone, only six months into the war, and it was still quite hot with bombings and missiles,” said Zeman, the boyish-looking fortysomething director best known for his true-crime docuseries The Sons of Sam, Murder Mountain and the critically acclaimed Cropsey . He was speaking from an editing suite in New York ahead of the doc’s run at the film festival. “But I knew we had a great story. I had these characters, these five different kids who were innocent in some respects, but they were also their own little soldiers in their own little war. ”

Stitching together a vivid mix of gorgeous cinematography, intimate interviews and a patchwork of gritty footage captured by the rescuers and news media in those fateful days, Zeman created a work of heart-stopping suspense and tenderness. The documentary, detailing the day-to-day struggles and dangers these people faced as they frantically rushed around in sub-zero temperatures feeding the animals, while the shells rained down around them, is so immersive that we often feel like we’re right there with them living through the horrors of it all.

The film’s chilling opening shot against a black screen with whispering, roaring lions and bombs exploding like distant thunder, followed by half a dozen men carrying a tranquilized lion into a van and a breaking news bulletin of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, offers a gripping snapshot of human passion at its best and its worst.

Zeman set out to tell a story of hope in the chaos and tragedy of conflict by “showing the human construct of war through the eyes of animals, who are acutely aware of the danger and destruction, but have no understanding of it.”

Scenes of frightened ostrich, deer and antelopes running from the rumbling explosions, or monkeys, lions and leopards staring in terror into the fiery night sky, alternating with footage of frightened people surging into train stations, showed the sheer brutality of war in real time.

“We’re always drawn to those moments where we’re so wrapped up being human and all its foibles and here we have an opportunity to step back and look at ourselves through the animals’ eyes. Hopefully that gives us a better perspective of how we’re treating each other. We don’t talk that much about animals in war. Though that’s changing as we have more conflicts, more climate change. Like [Hurricane] Katrina, when they were trying to save all these elderly people and they refused to leave without their cats and dogs. By talking about animals, it’s a much richer subject and you can actually bring out more humanity. I’ve learned more about humanity from animals than from other people.”

In one scene, a female keeper is seen falling on her knees in despair and comforting the tapirs. ‘My children, I’m sorry for the way you’re living,’ she says, stroking them. It was a touching moment that showed the deep bond between the juvenile tapirs and their human caretaker. “That was a very interesting part of this story, with Svitlana kneeling down, to understand that animals are not pets , nor creatures to be gawked at behind cages for entertainment. These animals are their children.”

The bodies of two keepers, who stayed behind and were reported missing, were later found in a barn with bullet wounds. One had a bucket of carrots in his hands, the other dog food. The glass enclosure of the rabbits and hamsters was used as a shooting range and all the animals were shot dead. The park staff posted a desperate plea for help on their social media. Tymofii, a young Polish vet, made the risky trip to volunteer. Arriving in an apocalyptic landscape of bombed-out structures and burnt-out trees in the deserted park, he started feeding the predators, who hadn’t eaten in a week. The next day he returned with his friends. One of the lions, distressed from the constant shelling, caught a volunteer by his coat sleeve and dragged him into his enclosure. The volunteer died in his friends’ arms before an ambulance came. Despite the obvious peril, Tymofii and the other boys, barely in their twentiess but with a single-minded devotion to the animals, continued to go back.

“When these kids went in to save these animals, people were asking, ‘How can you risk your life for an animal?’ What I found fascinating is that some people would ask that question and other people would answer, ‘How could you not? Who’s going to fight for them?’” Zeman observed. “It’s not a zero-sum game in terms of lives. You can’t prioritize one over the other. [Human lives having more value than animal lives] is unfortunately a very old way of thinking.”

Halfway through our conversation, Zeman, looking away and blinking back tears, choked up, “Animals are hope. I saw that for these people. Anytime you deal with animal suffering it’s hard not to get emotional about it.”

In the shadow of tragedy and grief, there were plenty of sunny, joyful moments. When Tymofii, the charismatic volunteer vet, is feeding the white tigers, he laughs and says to the wildcats, ‘If the Russians come, I’ll let you out.’ The caretakers and volunteers began posting comic clips of themselves chasing rams and ostriches, catching kangaroos by the tail, being attacked by pissed-off peacocks in their attempts to move them to safety. Stephen Colbert shared the clip that went viral on The Late Show of Tymofii driving a van full of wide-eyed kangaroos staring straight into the camera, while he cheerfully sang along to Ukrainian rock music.

Delving into the delicate connection that can exist between humans and animals is what makes Checkpoint Zoo such a deeply empathetic survival story. When ‘the boys’ go to the edge of the park, dangerously close to the Russian front line, to evacuate the wild moose that are part of the reintroduction program, they greet their rescuers ‘almost with tears in their eyes and gratitude’ and allowed themselves to be taken without resistance. Walking the half-starved moose to the van as they kept eating everything along the way, Yevhen, a sweet, smiley blonde boy, is instantly smitten. “It was so interesting how each of these kids found their spirit animal,” Zeman said, laughing. “That scene with Yevhen and the moose is this magic moment, where the human-animal bond transcends everything.”

Before war, the once-peaceful park—a multi-faceted charity project spanning over 600 acres—was full of life and entirely free to visitors. Alexander Feldman, businessman, parliamentarian and philanthropist, started it in 2011 as a petting zoo before it quickly grew into a safari park of sorts, with almost 300 species, alongside rehabilitation zones for injured and orphaned wildlife and domestic rescues, and therapy programs for kids with special needs and adults with drug addiction issues.

Feldman had one of the biggest primate collections in Ukraine and brought up his first baby chimp alongside his children as a cherished family member. The day a missile hit the roof of the monkey house and two chimps and two baby orangutans died of heart attacks was among his darkest moments. In an interview in the film, cuddling a lemur, he reflects back, “I let go and cried. That grief couldn’t be described in words. Many animals died of fear. When people say animals don’t understand, that’s stupidity. They cry like us, they suffer like us. They understand absolutely everything. My heart is breaking… what can I say.”

Feldman himself is one of those quirky, emotional, true-life ‘characters’ with a childlike charm that is a documentary filmmaker’s dream. There’s another sorrowful scene where he’s standing over a dead little donkey, covered in blood with open eyes, “Here’s another victim of the Russian world . An hour ago, he was eating hay and running around with his friends,” he said through tears, closing the eyes of the dead animal. In that crushing moment, he realized that “all the animals must be evacuated. Bring them to me.” So on day 26, the evacuation began with the birds and smaller animals. Feldman’s house, less than ten miles away but out of the battle zone, was turned into Noah’s Ark. Every inch of the palatial property was occupied by the four-legged and feathered refugees. Birds, alpacas, goats and sheep took over the tennis courts, marabou storks languished at the bottom of an empty swimming pool. A caracal colonized the bathroom. Monkeys and raccoons roamed amid his priceless art, wine and car collection, which he began selling off “for pennies” to feed the animals and pay staff salaries.

“The story does have a very Schindler’s List aspect,” Zeman said. “Here’s a guy who’s like an oligarch. I don’t know if he is, but he feels like it to my American eyes. You think he’s going to be a bad guy, but then suddenly you meet him and two seconds into the conversation he’s bawling like a child. He’s a philanthropist who wants to help the animals, the kids, the drug addicts.”

Zeman recalled another storyline of traumatized lions and tigers killing their cubs that didn’t make it into the film. “Whether they were killing their newborns or whether they were dying, there was the lack of food, the lack of nourishment and therefore the lack of milk. Some of the cats killed their young because they didn’t want them to suffer. And when you talk to Feldman about this, he’s a mess. The fact that he’s trying so hard to raise these animals and they’re killing their kittens because of human war.”

On April 5, the 41st day of Russia’s invasion, after a missile struck the big-cat compound, Feldman, once one of Ukraine’s richest men, stepped in front of a camera and delivered his urgent appeal, “The big cats compound is badly damaged. Tigers and lions miraculously survived. They can run into the streets. Today we decided to put them down or to evacuate them. But we have no idea how, no place to take them.”

It shook animal lovers not only in Ukraine but beyond. Local television rang within minutes. Hours after, he got hundreds of calls and texts from people and NGOs from all over Europe and the U.S. Trucks, transport cages and crates of food and desperately needed drugs to anesthetize the predators were sent. More than 10,000 people and organizations helped and made the mercy evacuation possible through financial donations. The Odesa and Kyiv zoos offering homes to the big cats, bears and wolves was a turning point.

The terrible plight of captive animals, especially in wartime that has been played out across cultures and centuries, calls into question if zoos should even exist. “The hard part is reconciling your own feelings about zoos and our connections with animals,” Zeman said, acknowledging that it draws us to rethink the concept of freedom itself. “Zoos were one of the best things I had growing up in New York. As an adult, I feel uncomfortable because who has the right to imprison another creature, take them out of their environment? Yet, at the same time, how do we educate young people or create a connection with animals? We have to find a different way with which to access nature.”

Stories of how thousands of animals starved to death, were shot, tortured or eaten in Berlin, Paris, Baghdad, and other cities under siege is a microcosm of what happens to a country at war. “The zoo in the center of a city, the Garden of Eden, the absolute innocence,” is seen as a symbol of survival and resistance against the forces that invaded it, Zeman said. “People want to protect the zoo. If the zoo gets lost and the animals die, then the city has surrendered its innocence.”

Checkpoint Zoo beautifully captures the essence of innocence, resilience and the interconnectedness of all living beings, as well as the continuing devastation of a country, its animals and its people, that makes it so essential and one of the year’s most important films. Zeman said: “You know Blackfish absolutely changed the world, and My Octopus Teacher showing octopi are far more brilliant and intelligent than we can ever understand. I hope that someone who might not be as empathetic to the Ukrainian plight because it has been so ridiculously polarized and our country might understand what it’s like if I show the same story through the eyes of an animal.”

Checkpoint Zoo premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival with screenings in select New York cinemas from June 6-13 2024.

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Lion attack caught on camera: Woman's birthday safari takes a terrifying turn, SA stunned

• A young lady went on a safari for her birthday, and she witnessed something terrifying
• The TikTok footage captured the attention of many people and gathered over 4 million views, likes and comments
• Social media users were shocked by the lady's clip as they rushed to the comments section to express their thoughts

One lady whose day was supposed to be filled with joy, laughter, and adventure on her birthday went totally left.

Lion attacks car safari driver in a video

The woman, who goes by the TikTok handle @refiilwe.e, shared the clip on the video platform and revealed that she went on a safari for her birthday until she witnessed a terrifying encounter in which a lion attacked a car safari driver.

@refiilwe.e's video shocked many people on the internet, and it went on to become a viral hit on TikTok, generating over 4 million views and thousands of likes and comments.

Watch the video below:

People react to the woman's clip

Social media users were astonished by the lady's video and flooded the comments section with their thoughts.

"Yeah. The lions at lion Park don't respect normal cars. Lol."

HoneyNight expressed:

"People not understanding that you’re in the safari car taking a video and they think it’s your car stress me so much."

Brian Makwala cracked a joke, saying:

"Even lions know Polo's attitude."

Snovo_baby added:

"I don't understand people that self drive in Safaris."

Itumeleng nhlanhla commented:

"Do you think the insurance guy would believe you? "my tyre was bitted by a lion."

Buhle Mabunda suggested:

"I'd keep driving."

Mrs Walker said:

"I’d be so scared."

Woman's terrifying run-in with cheetah goes viral on TikTok

Briefly News previously reported a video of a woman stumbling across a cheetah while jogging, which went viral on social media. The stunner detailed her experience.

One young lady who goes by the TikTok handle @kones567 shared a horrifying encounter she had while jogging. The woman thanked God for saving her life after she received a lift on the road. The stunner said she spotted a cheetah while jogging, which distressed her.