Members of Kenya’s Marsh lion pride, made famous in BBC’s long-running Big Cat Diary documentary series, have reportedly been poisoned after eating a cow carcass in the Masai Mara Reserve.
So far, two lions have died—a lioness named Bibi and an unidentified lion, which was found in the field dead, fed on by scavengers. Another female named Sienna has been missing since Governor’s Camp manager Patrick Reynolds discovered the animals acting strange Sunday morning.
On Tuesday, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust posted on its Facebook page that an autopsy of Bibi found that traces of an insecticide had been used to poison the pride. The wildlife trust’s mobile veterinary unit is treating five other lions in the pride with antidotes for the poison, and reported that six white vultures were found dead near the location of the poisoned cow carcass.
The rest of the 13-member lion pride has been accounted for and remains under 24-hour watch by veterinarians and park rangers, according to Paula Kahumbu of the conservation group Wildlife Direct.
Credit: Yahoo
