A lion that has been terrorizing residents of Igembe North near Meru National has been found dead.The lion who had escaped from the park is a said to have been feeding livestock’s of villagers until yesterday when it attacked the homestead of one widow.
According to area MCA John M’Ngai, the cow died as it tried to bring down a cow before it was torn apart by the cow’s horn. Investigations are however underway to establish the cause of death of the lion.
Mr. Nathan Gatundu of Kenya Wildlife attributes the death was due to hunger and stress. Since its escape villagers have been hunting down the lion after eating some of their livestock’s.
Since then it has gone into hiding, only appearing during odd hours of the night looking for food. Mr. John further explained that when the lion attacked the widow’s homestead, it was trapped between the cow’s rope before suffocating to death.
It’s also believed that divine interventions could have played a role since the widow had only that one cow left with her.From Friday last week to Sunday, the lion had eaten two cows with one being killed on Friday and the other one on Sunday.
On checking the lion’s remains, something like a goat skin was found inside his body which has since been taken in for further testing.
The dead lion is said to have attacked the widow’s homestead at around 1 a.m on Thursday. It’s still unclear what killed the lion until further investigations are conducted.
At the moment stress and hunger could have also been the cause.