South Africa lion attack kills tourist

South Africa lion attack kills tourist 1 June 2015

A tourist believed to be from the US has been killed in a lion attack at a game park in South Africa, a park official has told the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32966395

When will people learn to follow the rules. Sad for the woman, and her family, but if she'd kept her window up as she should have done it wouldn't have happened. The lioness was living by its on rules easy prey opportunist attack that's what its hard wired to do. The woman had a choice, the lioness didn't, and now she's put the lioness in danger of being killed, and it did nothing wgong

WS

Very sad as you say WS and entirely preventable.
I think lions particularly are far more dangerous to humans in so called wildlife parks than they are in the wild.The lions lose their fear of humans and rely on them for food and therefore associate humans with food!! Added to that is boredom, the lions are in an artificial environment with no other wildlife around them and the only distraction is the sight of numerous vehicles driving by. In the wild they they need to spend all their time and energy just staying alive and coping with the demands of living in close proximity with other equally formidable wildlife rather than worrying about humans in the occasion vehicle.
If humans and wild animals interact too closely there is always the likelihood of trouble. However much you might want to trust them they are still WILD animals and react accordingly. Theme parks and some tv wildlife programmes have a lot to answer for by giving a distorted view of how humans and wildlife interact.
George Adamson, who has now developed an almost cult status was thrown out of Meru National Park because his so called tame, friendly lions tried to pull a small child out of a Land Rover belonging to the Park Warden!!
Lions along with elephants, buffalo and rhino are dangerous animals and always will be.
Sadly publicity of this sort gives wildlife a bad name.

SM

As you can imagine this was all over FB - sad but what on earth was going on, they are semi wild and should be treated with respect. I notice the lion has been removed but not destroyed. Let's hope that is really the case.

Lai

This story is still making the news around here.

I agree with all of your comments and this was also reflected in most of the social media posts that I saw. Most people agreed that the park gives ample warning about the rules with clear pamphlets and sign boards everywhere. Most people therefor had little sympathy with the victim.

The park has now obtained the services of an animal behaviorist to monitor the behavior of the lion pride.

Some of these animals can unfortunately become problematic once they have been involved in a human attack and there is definitely a greater risk associated with them in future.



Chris