Wild lion, Loonkiito, one of the world’s oldest, killed in kenya
Written by Pheodora Waqanibaravi on May 14, 2023
A wild male lion believed to be one of the world’s oldest has died after being speared by herders.Loonkiito, who was 19, died in Olkelunyiet village after preying on livestock.Conservation group Lion Guardians said he was “the oldest male lion in our ecosystem and possibly in Africa”. Most lions live to around 13 in the wild.Almost all lions live in Africa with a small population in India, according to the World Wildlife Federation.Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesperson Paul Jinaro told the BBC the lion was old and frail and wandered into the village from the park in search of food.The Maasai-operated Lion Guardians group works to conserve the lion population in Amboseli National Park, and said the end of a drought was “habitually marked by an uptick in human-lion conflict” as “wild prey recover and become more difficult to hunt”.”In desperation, lions often turn to take livestock,”.The killing of Loonkiito was a “tough situation for both sides, the people and the lion”, and eulogised him as “a symbol of resilience and coexistence”.
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