Lions Evade Capture in Northern Province. (20 September, 1996)

Two male lions, or possibly four, have been giving the police, farmers and professional hunters the runaround in the Northern Province for the past three weeks and have left a trail of devoured game and cattle in their wake. A weary search party returned to Bulgerivier yesterday after another search lasting close to ten hours failed to trace the animals.

The search has now been called off until further evidence of the lions' whereabouts - either new tracks or another carcass - has been found. The search team has been hunting for the animals last week - an expensive task which is running into thousands of rands each day, said Simon Mikhari, Deputy Director of resource management for the Northern Province Department of Environmental Affairs.

The lions are believed to have entered South Africa from Botswana by crossing the Limpopo River. They have been feeding off cattle from surrounding farms in the Bulgerivier area, between Ellisras and Vaalwater. Bulgerivier police station commander, Inspector Pieter du Plessis, said an extensive search had been launched for the animals, and hunters had been ordered to end their trail of destruction even if it meant shooting them on sight.

Du Plessis said the lions had been spotted on four farms over the past few weeks and had left behind the carcasses of 19 cattle valued at about R50 000 as well as an unknown number of game including kudu and waterbuck. The two male lions have been sighted on numerous occasions and tracks suggesting two more lions have also been found.

'The lions have been hunting in the area for about four weeks and the farmers are starting to become aggressive becasue of the number of cattle that have been killed. The search party has sighted the lions, and shots were fired at them but they managed to escape,' Du Plessis said. An SAPS and two private helicopters have been used in the search. At the same time, a ground search party including a professional hunter hired by the Department of Environmental Affairs, and members of the stock theft unit accompanied by sniffer dogs, have been searching for the lions. By Melanie-Ann Feris. Courtesy of The Star .