A suspected poacher was killed and half eaten by a pack of hungry lions close to the Kruger National Park in South Africa, police said Monday. Police reports stated that little was left of the man’s body.
His remains were found over the weekend in the bush at a private game park near Hoedspruit in the northern province of Limpopo. This are has become prone to poaching over the course of recent years.
“It seems the victim was poaching in the game park when he was attacked and killed by lions. They ate his body, nearly all of it, and just left his head and some remains,” Limpopo police spokesman Moatshe Ngoepe told AFP.
A loaded hunting rifle was found near his body on Saturday morning. Police have still not determined the identity of the luckless man.
Lion body parts can be sold to ‘doctors’ who use them in traditional medicine.Last year, several lions were found poisoned near a farm in the same province with their heads and paws sawn off.
Poachers also often target rhinoceroses in South Africa’s game parks to meet a growing demand for rhino horn in China, Vietnam and other Asian countries, where they believe it to have medicinal qualities