Humans stealing meat from wild lions
By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News Lions in Cameroon are having their kills stolen from under their noses by hungry villagers, say conservationists. Incidences of such kleptoparasitism, the stealing of food from another, usually occur between top predators such as lion, hyena and cheetah. But people are increasingly getting in on the act, conservationists say. They suspect the practice may be much more common than thought, and are concerned that it could threaten the dwindling numbers of lions in Cameroon. An account of one particular incident where local villagers were caught stealing meat from a lion kill has been published in the African Journal of Ecology. … “Marjolein Schoe was involved in fieldwork and she actually made this field observation. She was surprised and angry actually that people had chased off the lions,” says colleague Hans de Iongh of Leiden University, who is also a member of the World Conservation Union’s Cat Specialist Group and the African Lion Working Group. … “We believe that the impact of this kind of behaviour might be significant on lion populations, since lions have to spend an enormous energy effort to capture the same amount of prey, if their prey gets stolen,” says de Iongh. “This may have a serious impact on a lion population which is already under serious stress by human encroachment and may eventually contribute to more rapid extinction.” …
