I highly recommend this report for anyone interested in the conservation of the African lion, especially in Tanzania: Baldus, Dr. Rolf D., Tanzania Wildlife Discussion Paper No. 41, Lion Conservation in Tanzania Leads to Serious Human - Lion Conflicts - With a Case Study of a Man-Eating Lion Killing 35 People (GTZ Wildlife Programme in Tanzania, Wildlife Division, Dr. Rolf D. Baldus, Ed., Dar es Salaam, 2004).

Here is a link: GTZ Lion Discussion Paper [Note: This is a 1MB plus file.]

This report makes for very interesting reading because of its very practical focus on lion conservation efforts (including sport hunting) and its informative study of human-lion conflicts in Tanzania.

The report includes, in Section 4, a hair-raising case study of an episode of man-eating by a lion on the northeastern border of the Selous, in the Rufiji District, between August 2002 and April 2004.

The author concludes that a system of compensation for the families of people killed by dangerous animals must be devised to prevent the undermining of all local public support of lion and other dangerous game conservation efforts.

I agree. Some quotes, with my commentary:

Number of People Killed Annually by Dangerous Animals in Tanzania: "We estimate [conservatively] that around 200 people are killed in Tanzania every year by dangerous animals, of which around one third on an average could be by lions." Author.

Comment: Can you imagine this kind of thing being tolerated anywhere in the developed world?

Lack of Compensation: "There is no [Government] compensation for wildlife related damage or loss of life in Tanzania. Occasionally the Government voluntarily pays small symbolic amounts of money if people get killed, like US$30 to 50." Author.

Comment: Not to be callous, but it is a hard fact that human life is cheap in Tanzania.

Public Acceptance: "Public acceptance of the consequences of [the] conservation of lions, namely the loss of livestock and human life, is generally low. Like all dangerous game, lions are rather unpopular where they occur." Author.

Comment: Without compensation for losses or the right, and adequate means, of self-defense, how could it be otherwise?

Rufiji Man-Eater: "The cruel story of the Tsavo man-eaters which killed 28 people in 1898/99 makes good reading in the safety of a London or Hamburg apartment, but how many people know that 35 children, men and women were taken, many out of their huts, killed and eaten by a lion between August 2002 and April 2004 close to the capital of Dar es Salaam?" Author.

Comment: I was in Tanzania, and hunting in the Selous for 21 days, not too far from the area where - and right in the middle of the period when - this rampage was happening. It was not even newsworthy. I had never heard of it until I read this report.

Methods of Man-Killing: "The most frequent method of attack was that a lion forced its way through the wall of a hut which usually consisted of thatched grass or mud. Or it jumped on the roof of a hut (thatched grass), fell or crawled through, caught a person and left through the same way. Frequently the lion killed both persons inside a hut, but always left the second person behind . . . ."

Comment: If a lion wants to get you while you're asleep in your tent, you are dead.

"The second most important style of attack was for the lion to jump up onto a [raised platform in the fields], on which people take on the role of live scarecrows (usually at night) to chase away crop raiding animals from their fields. In this case they unwittingly presented themselves as live bait to the lion."

Comment: Reminds me of Col. Patterson on the machan.

"[A] less frequent method was for the lion to snatch people who left the house at night to relieve themselves." Author.

Comment: This method turns an otherwise mildly annoying midnight toilet trip into a pretty grim life or death choice.

Dietary and Dining Habits: "If the lion had time it would drag its victim away [on an average, 45 metres] to eat the corpse including the intestines and leave the head, arms and lower legs behind." Author

Comment: Bloody awful and speaks for itself.

Plight of Populace: "People living under the fear of wild animals, running a daily risk of being killed by lions and other beasts, often tend to believe that they do not live under what can properly be called a Government." The Guardian, Dar es Salaam, 23 July 1997.

Comment: Government policy that protects wildlife at the expense of people's lives and livelihoods cannot long endure.

What a do-gooder.

The report sounds just like the stories of hunters of a hundred years ago and more. Nothing much changes.

I totally enjoy these type of stories in that at least there is one place on earth where nothing much has changed since the dawn of man.

The probable alternative: Destruction of the lions, paved highways, no game, strip malls, burgeoning populations, habitat destruction, lawyers everywhere(!). You know, all the good(?) things in life!

Very interesting. Thank you for posting!

Mike...real Africa!!! Life survival and death...The never ending struggle...

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
I totally enjoy these type of stories in that at least there is one place on earth where nothing much has changed since the dawn of man.

I also think the world will be a sadder place when the last truly wild area is paved over for a Starbucks' franchise (not that I have anything against Starbucks).

REAL AFRICA for a real African: living in a grass hut, no 416 custom big bore rifle, working, living, and dying under primitive conditions. Life expectancy around 40. Somewhere in the middle of the food chain. Try it! Just for thrills. Maybe take a lion on with nothing but a spear. No backup PH, etc. The ultimate AFrican experience.

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
The report sounds just like the stories of hunters of a hundred years ago and more. Nothing much changes.

Brian Nicholson (first game warden of the Selous) is quoted in this report to the effect that, back in the 1940s and 50s, 200 people per year were killed and eaten by lions in the Southern Province of Tanzania alone!

Nowadays, according to the author, the human death toll by dangerous animals is about 200 per year throughout the entire country. Things have improved for the indigenous people, but would still be intolerable anywhere in the first, or even the second, world.

Compensation for the families of the few who die so that the rest of us, both in Tanzania and abroad, can be assured that lions will continue to thrive in the wild seems only fair.

As the author suggests, slight increases in trophy fees for dangerous game could adequately fund such a program. I would be more than willing to pay such a premium as the price of my dangerous game hunting privileges. So, I guess you are right, I suppose I am a do-gooder.

I fear that the alternative, over the long run, will be that the lions will be the losers - in Tanzania and elsewhere - either kept behind fences or killed in wholesale fashion by an outraged populace.

How is it exactly that one is going to establish a price tag for someone that gets eaten by a lion? $10, $20, $10,000? Does it increase automatically due to inflation? Maybe we should get the ACLU involved.

Increase the foriegn aid to Tanz to pay off the grieving families?

The shear growth in population will kill off the lions eventually no matter what the trophy fees, the subsidies, the pay-offs, or however one might try to pay for them now.

Most everywhere else the solution is just to shoot the lions. I vote against that.

In the short term, pay what it takes, if that will work. If they had any say in this scheme all the lions would be dead anyway. If it was up to the locals in Zim all the elephants would be biltong.

There may be outrage but generally that is a short-lived emotion in Africa. Here today, gone tomorrow.

But lions are lions. Some of them eat people and some don't. The indescriminate shooting, poisoning, trapping, etc. of the poor lions will be their ultimate fate.

And a sad day indeed.

Well said, Will. And I fear you are correct.

The realist in me always wins.

But I cannot help but feel that we must do all we can, while we can, to delay that sad day.

I agree. Anything that can be done to delay their inevitable fate. I am all for it.