Greedy animal poachers often kill helpless animals in an effort to make a quick buck, with many of the world’s largest and most endangered animals like elephants, lions, and rhinos being at the forefront of such gruesome attacks. The body parts of these amazing animals can rake in lots of cash on the black market, whether it’s an elephant’s tusks, a lion’s bones, or a rhino’s horns. But sometimes, just sometimes, the poacher gets what they deserve; a big, fat helping of just desserts.
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In a public statement released just this past week by South African National Parks, we learn that the remains of a suspected rhino poacher were discovered at South Africa’s Kruger National Park. The statement goes on to explain that a parade of elephants attacked the individual, who was then further mauled by a pride of hungry lions.
As the statement notes, the family of the deceased poacher was notified of the attack by his accomplices, which prompted the family to call the park to ask for help in finding the man’s remains. Search parties comprised of park rangers and other authorities scoured the park on foot for hours, and while they faced significant challenges in locating the remains at first, that all changed last Thursday.
But as you might come to expect, hungry lions don’t leave much of their main course behind. The search party found nothing more than a human skull and a badly-tattered pair of pants. The rest of the man’s remains weren’t found, which insinuates that the hungry animals didn’t let any of their meal go to waste.
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In response to the tragedy, Kruger National Park’s Glenn Phillips had this to say: “Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise, it holds many dangers, and this incident is evidence of that. It is very sad to see the daughters of the diseased mourning the loss of their father, and worse still, only being able to recover very little of his remains.”
Fortunately, no animals appear to have been harmed at any point during the encounter.
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No one anywhere should be celebrating the loss of human life, even if they were in the wrong by visiting Kruger National Park with the intent of harming innocent wildlife. On the other hand, one might also be inclined to think that anyone who would enter a National Park to act out of such greed and disregard for nature’s beautiful creatures got what they had coming to them.
At the time of this writing, the poacher’s accomplices are in custody and awaiting their court trials while the family of the deceased man continues to mourn the loss of their loved one.
Albeit an unhappy ending, it should serve as a stern warning to animal poachers everywhere. Is your life worth the risk of harming an innocent animal to earn a small fortune?
Source: South African National Parks via The New York Times
