Africa Wild

Lion Park
Lion Park Press Release (14/07/2015)

The Lion Park is proud to announce that following an incredible 50 years at its Honeydew location it will, beginning early next year, be moving to a significantly larger, more beautiful and inspiring property. The new park is nestled amongst the foothills of the magnificent Magaliesberg Mountains, situated only 15 minutes past its current location, a short 10 minute drive from Lanseria Airport just off the scenic R512 and within the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage area.

The new Park will continue to offer the same world-renowned Lion Park experience but on a larger and more exciting scale. Visitors will be able to enjoy a memorable family day out immersed in the beautiful natural surroundings of the area. They will experience our famous guided game drives, explore the state-of-the-art facilities and delight in the many new activities on offer. At the same time, they can tuck into a scrumptious meal at our top-class restaurants whilst viewing various wildlife species grazing and drinking in their natural habitat.

Importantly, we wish to announce that lion cub interaction will no longer be on offer at the new Lion and Safari Park.

Whilst lion cub interaction is still very popular amongst the overwhelming majority of our visitors, as the industry leader, the Lion Park has been unjustifiably targeted by some of the media intimating that it is connected to the canned hunting industry. The Lion Park categorically denies any wrong-doing with regard to these insinuations.

It is against the background of this negative media coverage and the ongoing campaigns against us by certain animal activist groups that the decision has been reached to cease the cub interaction and the breeding of lions at the new park. In the meantime, for the next few months, lion cub interaction will still be available at the existing Lion Park.

The Lion and Safari Park will, as always, concentrate on the educational and awareness benefits derived from visitors being guaranteed close-up views of these magnificent animals. In addition to exposing members of the public to various species, we will continue to engage in a number of in-situ and ex-situ research programs and conservation efforts.

Alongside its world famous game drives and numerous other popular activities, the new Lion and Safari Park will offer guests the unique privilege of being exposed to a number of wildlife species in the most natural habitat possible and all of this, so conveniently close to the city.

The Lion Park would like to thank our guests for their unwavering support over the years and welcomes everyone to share in this next exciting chapter of our journey.

General Gump wrote:Hope all learn from the incident.

The curator especially, then again they sponge off saga events!!!

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ ... s-20150716

Kruger Park guide not at fault for leopard attack - SANParks
2015-07-16 14:00
Adam Wakefield, News24


Johannesburg - The tour guide who was attacked by a leopard in the Kruger National Park earlier this month was not at fault, South African National Parks said on Thursday.

The leopard, which was subsequently put down, was in a poor condition and behaved unusually, they said.

Joep Stevens, SA National Parks (SANParks) general manager of strategic tourism services, told journalists in Pretoria that the leopard involved in the attack on July 2 was an old male, believed to be 10 years or older.

"Its behaviour was certainly unusual, little doubt about that. Leopards are normally scared of people," Stevens, who conducted the investigation into the attack for SANParks, said.

"From the post mortem, [the leopard was in a] very poor condition."

The leopard had an empty stomach and distended gall bladder, indicating it had not eaten for days, with Stevens describing the leopard as almost "emaciated".

It was carrying parasites on both its outside and inside, with porcupine quills stuck in its muscle likely causing it discomfort, was infected with tuberculosis, had no lesions on the brain, and tested negative for rabies.

Leopard in 'poor condition'

"It was concluded from all the witnesses that the leopard was in a very poor condition, essentially in a desperate state," Stevens said.

"For this animal to try and find normal prey would've been very hard."

On the day of the attack, around 2km from the Skukuza camp day visitors area, around nine cars were watching the old male leopard when the car from Nhongo Safaris arrived.

The guide, Curtis Plumb, requested that his guests in the open safari vehicle sit still, but one of his guests got up and sat on the window sill, which appeared to have drawn the attention of the leopard.

"The next thing the leopard got up, moved around the back of the vehicle and watched the customers on the back. Clearly the leopard was showing unusual behaviour by making eye contact with people," Stevens said.

The leopard moved around the back to the driver's side, looked and attempted to get into the vehicle. Plumb used his right hand to chase the leopard off, but it grabbed his forearm and held onto it, trying to pull him out the vehicle.

"The leopard was in a poor condition and had very worn teeth. If it was a young leopard, it would have been much more effective in doing what it was trying to do," Stevens said.

Plumb asked guests to frighten the leopard away, and after failing to do so, he asked a Hyundai micro bus for assistance. The driver of the Hyundai tried using his door to chase the leopard away, though it "was determined to hang on".

Plumb was able to get the car going, and as he reversed, a part of the leopard, possibly its tail, was caught under the front wheel. The leopard released its grip and Plumb reversed away, but the leopard charged the vehicle.

Plumb was on a side road, saw a car coming towards him and could not get away. He put the car into first gear and rode over the leopard.

"This is not a sighting that anyone wants to see or anyone wants to have happen in a national park, especially with a leopard," Stevens said.

The Hyundai moved forward shortly afterwards and ran over the leopard. The leopard then got up and limped and lay down on a patch of grass by the road, where it was later put down.

Moving the leopard was not an option given it's condition and injuries.

Second leopard attack in 15 years

This was the second such incident involving a leopard in the last 15 years. The first took place on September 14 2003, involving a young female leopard in good condition who seriously injured a guide by biting him in the calf.

"There were strong indications that she had been habituated through feeding... By habituated we mean being fed by people, losing their fear of people for social reasons," he said.

The investigation found no harassment of the leopard took place during or prior to the attack, with the reasons for its unusual behaviour not being known.

He said a video on social media created an impression that the leopard was boxed in.

"At the place where the leopard was, was at the end of the queue of the cars. It was confirmed that there was no boxing in or harassment of the animal before the incident."

Plumb, who was wearing a thick jacket at the time of the attack which prevented him from being seriously injured, was expected to make a full recovery.

It was also confirmed that the driver of the Hyundai never intended to drive over the leopard.

He had fully co-operated with the investigation, had his son take a video of himself to give an account of the accident shortly after it happened, and reported it to authorities.

"There was no evidence that this guy did it intentionally," Stevens said.

http://citizen.co.za/425658/kruger-nati ... r-cleared/

National 16.7.2015 01.53 pm
Kruger National Park leopard ‘killer’ cleared

Amanda Watson

SANParks has cleared the guide involved in the death of a leopard in the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga last week of any liability.
Strategic tourism services general manager at SANParks Joep Stevens noted the leopard was in a “desperate state”. The post mortem of the 10-year-old animal by the State Veterinarian Dr Louis van Schalkwyk showed broken and worn teeth, abnormally worn paws and evidence of a fight with a porcupine.
Van Schalkwyk found the leopard to be free of rabies, however it was infected with tuberculosis. Stevens said this was the second incident involving a leopard in the park. The first incident happened in 2003 when a young female leopard jumped into the front of an Open Safari Vehicle (OSV). This animal was also put down.
The OSVs had been in use in the park since 2000 and to date, more than 1.4 million guests had been conveyed in nearly 230 000 vehicle visits, Stevens said. Speaking about the incident itself, he said the vehicle was operated by Nhongo Safaris, owned by Dean Cherry and on the day was driven by guide Curtis Plumb.
There were eight guests in the OSV and when Plumb arrived at the scene, there were already about 10 private vehicles present. Plumb said a person in one of the private vehicles sat in the vehicle window, which would have broken the outline animals in the park are used to.
A short while later the leopard attacked and Plumb used his right arm to block the leopard and, if it wasn’t for a heavy jacket, the guide would have been mangled.
As it was, the leopard proved difficult to dislodge and even after it had been driven over once, it still tried to jump into the vehicle again while he was reversing away from the attack.
“Curtis indicated that the most scary part of the incident was when the leopard almost succeeded in getting into the vehicle again,” said Stevens.
It was while he was reversing Plumb saw his escape cut off as another vehicle came up behind him. “He realised he could no longer pursue that escape plan and he decided to drive the vehicle forward, and then ran over the leopard,” said Stevens.
It was the actions of the driver of a Hyundai which raised a storm on social media when he drove over the leopard as well, however, he too was cleared of any wrongdoing. Kruger’s managing executive Glenn Phillips said the driver of the Hyundai had fully cooperated and had taken a video immediately after the event which he had handed to authorities.
Phillips said the investigation broadly acknowledged the animal was in poor condition and its behavior was clearly unusual. “Therefore the conduct of the guide was not unlawful or unreasonable,” said Phillips.
Plumb has been discharged from hospital.

The guide, Curtis Plumb, requested that his guests in the open safari vehicle sit still, but one of his guests got up and sat on the window sill, which appeared to have drawn the attention of the leopard.

There were eight guests in the OSV and when Plumb arrived at the scene, there were already about 10 private vehicles present. Plumb said a person in one of the private vehicles sat in the vehicle window, which would have broken the outline animals in the park are used to.

Still different stories



And SANParks media release does not say what has happened exactly
http://www.sanparks.org/about/news/default.php?id=56415

Sanparks can't say that as they are moving towards more OSV's, this was always going to end up as naughty leopard.

At least Sanparks has given a detailed description of the incident to the newspaper. if it is 100% correct we cannot know

RobertT wrote:Sanparks can't say that as they are moving towards more OSV's, .

They had 1.4 million visitors using OSV in 15 years , or 93 333 per year .
With KNP receiving around 2 million ( total ) visitors per year , that means around 1,9 million visitors are selfdrive .
Do they rally want to kill off self-drive - it would be so stupid

RobertT wrote: this was always going to end up as naughty leopard.

Exactly,...Mr Stevens would be a huge hypocrite if he did see any wrong in the
OSV industry,....their big mission regarding hotels and alleviation of traffic congestion.

In fact, lets just face it, all these adventures that Sanparks have initiated, "to lure the
tourist" has come at fault and flawed,....somewhere down the line!!!

But one must see this incident as a isolated case,.....like all the other isolated cases
when it comes to EIA's,....and bars,..if you get my drift!!!!

Once again the bigger picture is avoided at all cost, for such practicality would meddle
with the easily acquired revenue, casting a blind eye elsewhere,..

I'm afraid for the mere fact that Mr. Stevens's colleague, a Mr. Phillips, now boss of Kruger
had to make a point with his presentation regarding the Skuks hotel, about and to effect
that the opposition parties in parly( the red brigade) must be seen as a threat. In their
hands Kruger faces doomsday in short. This after the very fact that the "black diamonds"
were used as an excuse for further abuse, misuse and over exploitation of KRUGER,...and
other.

There was not a single black Sanparks member to support this verbal abuse present that
day at Groenkloof,...I beg of you pardon for me drifting away from the isolated case.

I clearly stated and made remarks bearing in mind scenarios like this, abuse of natural asset!!!

But yah,......not relevant the the topic in question,....your :"GARDEN OF EDEN",...IN GREEN HANDS!!

South African National Parks GM in tourism, Joep Stevens, details the incident where a tour guide was mauled by a leopard at the Kruger National Park on 2 July 2015.

Video from the press briefing: