SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Harriet Barber
A 14-year-old girl has been killed by a lion on the outskirts of Nairobi after being snatched from a residential compound.
According to the Kenya Wildlife Service, the teenager was mauled on Sunday evening in Savannah Ranch, located near Nairobi National Park.
Another teenager witnessed the attack and raised the alarm.
The lion has not been found, but rangers said they had set a trap and were searching for the animal.Credit:
Rangers then followed the lion’s tracks to the nearby Mbagathi River, where they found the girl’s body, which had injuries on her lower back.
The lion has not been found, but rangers said they had set a trap and were searching for the animal.
“We have set a trap and deployed teams to search the area,” the Kenya Wildlife Service said. “We are reinforcing security measures to prevent further incidents.”
The girl was reported to be a student at a nearby primary school. A post-mortem will not be carried out.
Nairobi National Park lies just 10km from the city centre and is home to animals such as lion, buffalo, giraffe, leopard and cheetah.
While it is fenced on three sides to prevent animals roaming into the city, it is open to the south to allow them to migrate to larger parks beyond.
On its website, the Kenya Wildlife Service says that last year more than 143km of electrified perimeter fencing was installed, which led to a “drastic reduction of human wildlife conflict”.
The conservation agency also said that a 54-year-old man had been killed by an elephant over the weekend.
The elephant was grazing in Mere Forest when it attacked the man, who sustained serious chest injuries, fractured ribs and internal trauma, the agency said.
The incident happened in the central Nyeri country, about 130km north of Nairobi.
Last year, CCTV footage captured the moment a lion snatched a Rottweiler from a home near Nairobi National Park.
And in March, footage emerged of a lioness hunting in a residential area of Ongata Rongai in Kajiado County.
According to local press, wild animals – especially lions and hyenas – are increasingly spotted in public areas of Nairobi, although attacks on people and deaths are unusual.
Conservationists and community leaders have called for better mitigation strategies, such as more effective fencing, early warning systems, and community education programmes.
The Telegraph, London
