Khutse lions terrorise farmers
10 May, 2005

MOLEPOLOLE - Some farmers near Khutse Game Reserve have relocated to safer areas because of fear of lions that have invaded their grazing zones.

Farmers say lions have killed many cattle but they receive a pittance in compensation. They said they were compensated P700 per animal irrespective of size and quality of breed.

One of the farmers, Moala Gaerupe said some farmers at Mongane, Kitia, Mangadiele and Mogujwane cattle posts have had to move to safer places.

He said lions, which have moved out of Khutse Game Reserve into the grazing areas, were killing cattle at an alarming rate and that they wre also a threat to human life.

Gaerupe is one of the farmers who moved his cattle from the lion infested area and has relocated to Kungwane cattle post.

Gaerupe and former MP for Letlhakeng, Boometswe Mokgothu were in a farming syndicate at Mogujwane borehole but have both moved to safer areas.

He suggested that government should at least build a fence along Khutse Game Reserve to control lions.

He said attempts by wildlife officials to scare them away were "fruitless as lions ignore rubber bullets fired in the air".

One of the farmers, Pako Keokilwe who appeared hopeless, said the lions have impoverished them saying at the beginning of the year, he had lost more than 20 cattle to lions.

Herd boys at his cattle post told BOPA on Tuesday that lions killed and devoured two cows belonging to Keokilwe and a calf belonging to Maruping Dibotelo.

Herdboys said they had to run for their lives after horses they were riding could not move further into the bush which indicated that lions were lurking.

At Mahuhumo cattle post herdboys said hundreds of cattle had been killed by lions. Badisa Rabosetlha of Kungwane cattle post said a lioness with cubs killed his cow recently and a large number of donkeys have been killed at Botatane lands.

He called on government to do something about the lions. Asked what they were doing to help farmers, Kweneng District assistant wildlife warden Tefo Gabanapelo said they applied different methods of driving lions back into the game reserve.

He said one of them was to fire rubber bullets in the air but they were now used to this and ignored them.

They also use vehicles to drive lions back into the game reserve but they resist by taking a different direction and hide in thick bushes.

Even after translocation, they come back because they are territorial animals, he said. Gabanapelo admitted that lions have terrorised farmers and forced most of them to move to safer places, giving the example of Mokgothu, Gaerupe and other farmers at Mangadiele, Kitia and Mongane cattle posts.

The assistant game warden said since August last year up to the end of March this year, lions had killed 231 head of cattle and government had paid over P248 000 in compensation to farmers.

He said he feared that some lions have been born outside the game reserve and might have established their territories outside the game reserve.

He said even though they may go back into the game reserve, some may resist because they were bred and grew up in the area and knew no any other territory that the one they were born into.

Maybe someone should alert the outfitters that offer $145K lion hunts that have so far failed to produce a trophy

Same thing happens with the lions in and near Etosha in Namibia. Cattle farmers allow their herds to graze right next to the park's boundaries. It should come as no surprise that the lions stray from the park with that kind of prey handy.

How can anyone blame the lions? The cattle are easy pickings compared with wild game. It sure beats working for a living.

And I do know from first-hand experience that the lions can be a real threat to humans as well as the cattle.

Maybe, as in Namibia, the Botswana government will declare problem animals in this area and make them available to sport hunters.