GhostOfCaptSpaulding
07-24-2009, 02:24 PM
[offsite:edhd5tj9]People steal meat from wild lions
Lions in Cameroon are having their kills stolen from under their noses by hungry villagers.
Incidences of such kleptoparasitism, the stealing of food from another, usually occur between top predators such as lion, hyena and cheetah.
But people are increasingly getting in on the act, conservationists say.
They suspect the practice may be much more common than thought, and are concerned that it could threaten the dwindling numbers of lions in Cameroon.
An account of one particular incident where local villagers were caught stealing meat from a lion kill has been published in the African Journal of Ecology.
On the morning of the 28 March 2006, biologist Marjolein Schoe of Leiden University in The Netherlands and colleagues were tracking a male lion fitted with a radio collar in Benoue National Park, in the Northern Province of Cameroon.
They found him and a collared female lion both feeding on a newly killed Western hartebeest antelope.
As Schoe's vehicle approached, both lions fled into nearby thicket where they remained hidden until the researchers left.
Around 5pm that afternoon, the researchers returned to the site of the kill.
As they arrived, they encountered several local villagers, who also ran away and hid in the bush.
All the remaining meat on the hartebeest carcass had been stripped away by knife, leaving only the head, feet and a few remains. Leaves also littered the carcass, suggesting that the whoever had cut away the meat had used leaves to package it.
Near to the hartebeest also lay a wooden pole, further evidence that people had been scavenging from the kill.
More: BBC | People steal meat from wild lions (http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8167000/8167681.stm)[/offsite:edhd5tj9]
No school like the old school!
What do you want to bet this is one way our precursors first went carnivorous?
Sure beats fighting the crowds at the supermarket...
And the surly cashier?
Don't even get me started....
Lions in Cameroon are having their kills stolen from under their noses by hungry villagers.
Incidences of such kleptoparasitism, the stealing of food from another, usually occur between top predators such as lion, hyena and cheetah.
But people are increasingly getting in on the act, conservationists say.
They suspect the practice may be much more common than thought, and are concerned that it could threaten the dwindling numbers of lions in Cameroon.
An account of one particular incident where local villagers were caught stealing meat from a lion kill has been published in the African Journal of Ecology.
On the morning of the 28 March 2006, biologist Marjolein Schoe of Leiden University in The Netherlands and colleagues were tracking a male lion fitted with a radio collar in Benoue National Park, in the Northern Province of Cameroon.
They found him and a collared female lion both feeding on a newly killed Western hartebeest antelope.
As Schoe's vehicle approached, both lions fled into nearby thicket where they remained hidden until the researchers left.
Around 5pm that afternoon, the researchers returned to the site of the kill.
As they arrived, they encountered several local villagers, who also ran away and hid in the bush.
All the remaining meat on the hartebeest carcass had been stripped away by knife, leaving only the head, feet and a few remains. Leaves also littered the carcass, suggesting that the whoever had cut away the meat had used leaves to package it.
Near to the hartebeest also lay a wooden pole, further evidence that people had been scavenging from the kill.
More: BBC | People steal meat from wild lions (http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8167000/8167681.stm)[/offsite:edhd5tj9]
No school like the old school!
What do you want to bet this is one way our precursors first went carnivorous?
Sure beats fighting the crowds at the supermarket...
And the surly cashier?
Don't even get me started....