April 7, 2019

"All that was left to bring back to the camp was the poacher's bloodied head...."

From "Rhino poacher trampled to death by elephants then eaten by lions at Kruger National Park in South Africa" (The Sun).
Four other poachers... described how an angry elephant surprised them as they stalked endangered rhino and stamped their friend to death giving them a chance to run for safety.

Kruger Park Rangers... found what was left of the poacher on Thursday but it appeared he had been eaten by a lion pride....

KNP managing executive Glenn Phillips said:  “It was very sad to see the daughters of the deceased man mourning the loss of their father, and worse still, only being able to recover very little of his remains.”
Here, we only got the head.

57 comments:

robother said...

At least that's one head that won't be mounted on the wall in some lion's den.

tcrosse said...

But, that's the best part.

AllenS said...

Justice.

mockturtle said...

Justice is swifter in the animal kingdom.

Bay Area Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bob Boyd said...

Needing to confirm the identity of the deceased, the ranger holds the head by the hair, raises it high and asks the assembled villagers, "Is it him?"
They peer at the head for a moment, then one man says, "There's a resemblance, but I don't remember him being that tall."

Mike Sylwester said...

The TCM cable channel recently showed a 1955 documentary movie called The African Lion. The movie was superb.

The movie included a sequence that began with a lioness killing a wildebeest. Then the pride's other lions joined to feast on the body.

Then the lioness tried to drag the remaining carcass back to her two cubs. On the way, a pack of jackals attacked the lioness and ate much of the carcass.

Then a lot of vultures flew down and ate most of the rest of the carcass.

Finally, the lioness managed to drag away just the wildebeest's head and spine. That was what the lioness's cubs would get to eat.

Fernandinande said...

Most Popular
'I FELT VIOLATED'
How traumatic obstetric violence or 'birth rape' affects millions of mums

Even worser than violated violence rape - "Birth-rape"! That new meme needs a 'graphic' so it'll be a real meme.

mockturtle said...

Bob Boyd @ 8:45: LOL!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

COOL!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Go elephants, go! Keep stompin'.

gspencer said...

Died doing what he loved.

Trumpit said...

Humans are genetically very similar to chimps, gorillas, and orangutans. All life is in peril including our own species because of one out-of-control species - homo sapiens. I'm sorry that we evolved into a blight on the planet. It's not fair to the rest of the species. The populated explosion of humans continues relentlessly. This is reckless, and insufferable. Science fiction explains the dystopia we are already facing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia

robother said...

And what's with those lions letting the elephant do the hard work, and then swooping in like a bunch of jackals to feast on someone else's kill? Show some pride, lions!

Phil 314 said...

Bob Boyd, that was a good one!

Amadeus 48 said...

Re: 1955 The African Lion.

Ah, those Walt Disney true life adventures. I used to love them. The Living Desert--eek! those snakes! Winston Hibler had the most authoritative yet friendly narrative voice you can imagine.

Although they have been criticized on the verite' front, those true life adventures have great photography and compelling narratives.

Phil 314 said...

Gosh Trumpit, lighten up!

pious agnostic said...

When I read stories like this, I wonder: "how much of this is true?"

Was the dead man actually a poacher?
Were the dead man's companions also poachers?
Did anyone actually die?

Just seems too good a story to believe, "evil poacher killed by animals."

Pugsley the Pug said...

Karma!!!! Poachers are scum of the earth.o

Fernandinande said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fernandinande said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lucien said...

Guy shoulda been smeared with honey and staked out on an anthill. (As my mother used to say.)

Fernandinande said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Maillard Reactionary said...

Those must have been Sicilian lions.

tim maguire said...

Some poor subsistence hunter gets killed while practing the culture of his ancestors and rich white Westerners laugh about it.

Bob Boyd said...

The dead guy made a lot of money poaching.
Then he quit when he was a head.

Paul said...

K...A...R...M...A.

Tough nuts.

BTW, looks like a 1917 Enfield rebarreled to .375 H&H. Good 'big five' game rifle busted up.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

If it's fake, that's a shame. I'd like it to be true.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

but unlike leftwing hiveminders, I can accept that I've been scammed.

RK said...

I wonder if there was consideration to tracking down the lions and collecting their scat so the poor man could be buried whole.

madAsHell said...

I once watched as a wildebeest was dispatched by storks, vultures, and hyenas in the Serengeti. It was 15 minutes of chaos, and the bones were stripped of meat. The circle of life has a very small radius in Africa.

I'm surprised the head came home.

elkh1 said...

Sad? Why? He deserved the punishment. The elephant is the hero who protects his home from invaders.

Fernandinande said...

Media Statement

"NELSPRUIT - A human skull found in the Kruger National Park (KNP) is believed to be that of a man reportedly killed by an elephant while poaching with his accomplices.

The police received information that some men had gone poaching in the KNP on 01 April 2019, when suddenly an elephant attacked and killed one of them. His accomplices claimed to have carried his body to the road so that passers-by could find it in the morning. They the vanished from the Park.

Once outside, they reportedly informed a relative of the dead man about their ordeal and police were alerted regarding the incident. A search operation was launched by police and Rangers in the mentioned area, whereupon the human skull and pieces of clothing were found. ..."

Bob Boyd said...

Gives new meaning to the term head-hunter.

Bob Boyd said...

Kathy Griffin has denied any involvement in the incident.

effinayright said...

tim maguire said...
Some poor subsistence hunter gets killed while practing the culture of his ancestors and rich white Westerners laugh about it.
*****************

Poachers don't "subside" on rhino meat. They kill them for the horns, which the Chinese believe have aphrodisiac properties when ground up and ingested. Then they leave the body behind to rot or be eaten by scavengers.



LA_Bob said...

"Then they leave the body behind to rot or be eaten by scavengers.

The lions settled for a morsel of human instead of a banquet of rhino.

Seeing Red said...

Karma!

mockturtle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JaimeRoberto said...

Poaching is no way to get ahead.

Dad Bones said...

I just read that South Africa has some privately owned herds of rhinos. The rhinos are anesthetized and the horns sawed off which will grow back. They've been using the horns in Asia, not just China, for all kinds of ailments for a couple thousand years. It was thought that the private harvesting of the horns would curtail poaching but others think that it increases the demand.

mockturtle said...

Poaching is no way to get ahead.

Heh heh!

JAORE said...

Bob Boyd. My new hero.

dbp said...

Human trophy hunters pretty much only want the head. That's the part animals leave behind as useless. At least it's true of the large animals, small ones like insects would have enjoyed the head, if they'd gotten a crack at it.

mockturtle said...

These poachers have very thick skulls.

Rusty said...

i know how that conversation went.
"Let's take Denbey."
"But he's old and slow!"
"Precisely."

n.n said...

I wonder what was their motive. South Africa has been in a progressive slump since the Mandela faction lynched competing black Africans, the international community Gaddafied the native South African people and reclaimed access to the natural resources, and progressives saw fit to implement a constitution that normalizes diversity, redistributive and retributive change, and other discriminatory and wicked solutions.

John Evans said...

When hunting big game, make sure your companion(s) run slower than you.

gadfly said...

"Rhino poacher trampled to death by elephants then eaten by lions . . ."

My first reaction was: Did they spell RINO incorrectly?

Clyde said...

Karma.

Boy, those animals stick together, don't they? I can just see an "Animal Solidarity" sign with a grinning rhino, a grinning elephant and a grinning lion with fists raised high.

As long as they don't team up with the cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys, though, I should be alright.

mockturtle said...

Animal Lives Matter!

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"Died doing what he loved" -- getting stomped by an elephant.

"It was very sad to see the daughters of the deceased man mourning the loss of their father."

Oh, so the poacher was black! That IS sad.

Be said...

The David Letterman Contingent let out a book of humor at one point. I remember the Perot-like charts, showing both Goofus and Gallant dating a girl. Remember Goofus yelling "I Won!" after getting laid in one panel.

donald said...

Do your part Trumpit. Kill yourself.

Robert Cook said...

I say hoorah for the animals! The true Animal Liberation Front!

bagoh20 said...

Even with just the head you can still have an open casket. Am I right?

bagoh20 said...

If it wasn't for the species of wildlife involved, this could have been a Florida man story.