Showing posts with label wildlife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wildlife. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Lion kills zookeeper in Nigeria

A zookeeper at a Nigerian university has been killed by one of the lions he had been looking after for close to a decade.

Olabode Olawuyi, who was in charge of the zoo at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), was attacked as he was feeding the lions, the university said in a statement.

His colleagues were unable to save him as one of the lions had already fatally wounded him, the university added.

The lion has since been put down.

Mr Olawuyi, a veterinary technologist, had been "taking care of the lions since they were born on campus about nine years ago".

"But, tragically, the male lion killed the man who had been feeding them," the university's spokesman, Abiodun Olarewaju, said.

"We never knew what came over the male lion that it had to attack [him]," he added.

Nigerians on social media have been sharing graphic images of the mauling at the university in Osun state in the south-west.

The university community is in mourning, and a delegation has gone to the family of Mr Olawuyi to offer their condolences.

The university's vice-chancellor, Prof Adebayo Simeon Bamire, said he was "saddened" by the incident and ordered a thorough investigation the incident.

The students' union leader, Abbas Akinremi, told Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper that the attack was caused by "human error" after the zookeeper had forgotten to lock the door after feeding the lions.

He described the incident as unfortunate, while paying tribute to Mr Olawuyi as a "good and humble man, who attended to us nicely whenever we went to the zoo".

Abba Gandu, who has been feeding lions for more than 50 years at a zoo in Kano in northern Nigeria, described Monday's incident as unfortunate and said more safety measures were needed.

"This incident wouldn't in any way affect me personally as feeding lions is what I want to do until I die," said Mr Gandu, who started feeding lions in 1971.

He added that his worst experience was when a baboon he was trying to feed bit his finger. 

By Basillioh Rukanga & Mansur Abubakar, BBC

Related story: Lion removed from house near school in Lagos, Nigeria

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

China jails gang for smuggling pangolin scales from Nigeria

A court in China has jailed 17 people for smuggling pangolin scales worth US$28 million from Nigeria to China.

The creature is the world’s most trafficked mammal in the world and its scales are used for medical reasons in Asia despite there being no evidence they can cure ailments.

The gang was convicted of importing 23 tonnes of scales between 2018 and 2019, the Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern city of Wenzhou said on Tuesday.

Two men identified as “masterminds behind the racket” were sentenced to between 13 and 14 years in prison.

The remaining others were given jail terms ranging from 15 months to 12 years.

The scales were brought in on, among other things, a consignment “hidden in ginger slices”, the court said.
 

Coronavirus link?

China removed pangolin body parts from its official list of traditional medicines in June and raised the animal’s protected status to the country’s highest level due to its dwindling numbers.

Pangolin scales are traditionally used in China for a range of illnesses, including treating blood clots and aiding lactation.

But there is no scientific evidence that they have any medicinal value.

There are some studies that also suggest that the scally creature may have been the intermediate host that transmitted the coronavirus to humans when it first emerged at a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019.

China has since banned the sale of wild animals for food in such markets.

China has cracked down on animal smuggling. In December, the country said it jailed a network accused of running its biggest-ever ivory smuggling ring, which moved elephant tusks worth millions of dollars from West Africa into the mainland’s vast domestic market.

AFP