Authorities in Kenya report that herders speared to death a wild male lion thought to be among the world’s oldest.
On Wednesday night, Loonkiito, a 19-year-old who preyed on livestock in Olkelunyiet village, was killed.
The village of Amboseli, located in southern Kenya, is right on the park’s border.
According to the conservation organization Lion Guardians, he was “the oldest male lion in our ecosystem and possibly in Africa.” A wild lion’s average lifespan is around 13 years.
The World Wildlife Federation reports that almost all lions are found in Africa, with only a small population in India.
According to Paul Jinaro, a KWS spokesperson, the lion was old and weak when it left the park and entered the village in search of food.
Mr. Jinaro remarked that he was “very old,” but he didn’t know if he was the country’s oldest lion.
According to the Maasai-operated Lion Guardians group, which works to conserve the lion population in Amboseli National Park, the end of a drought is “habitually marked by an uptick in human-lion conflict” as “wild prey recover and become more difficult to hunt.”
“When lions are desperate, they frequently take livestock,” it said.
According to the article, Loonkiito was “a symbol of resilience and coexistence,” and his death was a “tough situation for both sides, the people and the lion.”
Wildlife conservationist and WildlifeDirect CEO Paula Kahumbu expressed her sadness over the lion’s death and advocated for stronger wildlife protections in the country.
“This is the tipping point for human-wildlife conflict, and as a country, we must do more to save lions, which are on the verge of extinction,” Ms. Kahumbu said.
Lions typically live only about 13 years in the wild, but they can live much longer under the right conditions.
