Death of killer cats outrages town / Residents extol virtue of lions that devoured suspected burglar
By ANDREW MAYKUTH
Philadelphia Inquirer
MARLOTH PARK, South Africa - No one knows the name of the man who was devoured recently near Nyala Street. The lions left only his head, one foot (still in its shoe), a baseball cap, and a solar panel stolen from a nearby house.
"There were so few leftovers, we couldn't identify him," said Andre Lubbe, the clerk of this vacation town bordering Kruger National Park. "We suspect he was an illegal immigrant from Mozambique, a burglar."
The provincial government responded by capturing and killing three lions suspected of being man-eaters in this town where wild animals migrate easily from the famous Kruger game park next door.
Residents of the expensive vacation homes here were outraged. Not by the death of the unknown man but by the fate of the lions.
"A lot of people feel the lions are good watchdogs," said Patrick Buckmaster, the chairman of the town council. He said city residents whose weekend homes are easy prey for burglars felt most strongly about protecting the lions.
The reaction to the lion attack touched off a furor. Provincial wildlife officials, accustomed to pleas to kill predators that stray from game parks, couldn't recall another time when residents wanted to save lions that had eaten a human.
"I don't think half the people realize the threat they face from lions in that area," said Ertjies Rohm of the Mpumalanga Province Parks Board. "Once an animal has killed a human and eaten it, the chances that he will do it again are much greater."
And, as is often the case in South Africa, the issue of race quickly entered the debate.
Marloth Park's residents are virtually all white, affluent and accustomed to driving the dirt roads in cars and trucks, relatively safe from preying lions. But black workers on nearby farms and in Marloth Park can't afford cars and must walk or bike miles through lion territory to reach the nearest grocery. Provincial officials suggest privately that the town would react differently if a white person had been killed.
So does Sydney Maziya, 29, a black Marloth Park ranger who was attacked by a lion last year. He survived, but spent three weeks recovering in a hospital.
"One of these days, even the white children could be in that situation." said Maziya. "Then are they going to put out those pamphlets saying the lions should be saved?"
Town officials now argue their concern for the lions' welfare is based on their love for wildlife conservation rather than a fondness for feline security guards.
Still, many people have a cavalier attitude about the threat to human life. Councilman Leslie Deakin, noting that lions previously had shown a preference for victims on bicycles, said some residents had taken to calling black cyclists "meals on wheels."
Lubbe, the town clerk, said, "We are not a racist place. That makes me so sorry that the government looks at it that way." He said the town regularly invites black children from area schools to Marloth Park to learn about wildlife.
"The biggest killers by far in Africa are mosquitoes spreading malaria, but the government is doing zip about them - nothing," said Tony Garwood, the owner of a Marloth Park guest house. "Why choose the lions? It's a pure emotional thing."
Johan van der Walt, the town's conservation officer, said people live in Marloth Park because of the wildlife. "Everybody who buys here knows there are risks," he said.
The September incident here was the fifth time in a year that lions have attacked humans in Marloth Park. It was the first fatal attack since the 12-square-mile town was created in 1977 for vacation homes.
Marloth Park is an unusual town, even in a country where wildlife is such a passion; half the town is devoted to a municipal game reserve, and even secretaries in the town hall affect a safari look, wearing khaki uniforms. Only a quarter of the town's 4,000 one-acre lots are developed, so zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, warthogs and an occasional elephant are free to roam the bush that separates the houses.
Maziya, the Marloth Park worker who was mauled last year, expressed relief that provincial park officials drugged three male lions and took the animals to Kruger's labs for testing. Park officials found one of the cats had bovine tuberculosis, which is decimating Kruger's lion population. The lions catch the disease by eating infected buffalo.