Lion trophy-hunted at Sesfontein

Ministry spokesperson Romeo Muyunda said yesterday that the hunt generated N$150 000. The Sesfontein and Puro conservancies in Kunene each got N$65 000 to help pay farmers who had been affected by the problem lion in the past. Muyunda said N$20 000 was paid to the Game Products Trust Fund to be reinvested into conservation. He said the 10-year-old lion was put down in accordance with Nature Conservation Ordinance 4 of 1975. “The lion has been observed moving into people's settlements at night posing a threat to their lives,” Muyunda said. He said the lion has killed 12 cattle, 13 donkeys and nine goats since 2019 in the two areas. “The lion was also displaying traits that it was not scared of people,” Muyunda said. He added that the ministry, together with the conservation stakeholders, had put measures in place before the lion was declared a problem-causing animal. He said the lion was chased out of settlements on different occasions and was translocated further to the west of Sesfontein to an area called Gai!Ai. However, the lion came back and continued causing more problems, Muyunda added. “The communities appealed to the ministry to intervene before it caused more damage and it was trophy-hunted to generate funds for the affected communities through conservancies,” he said. Muyunda said the destruction of problem-causing animals is part of the ministry's conservation methods aimed at mitigating human-wildlife conflict.

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