It happens, but not nearly as often as humans kill other humans. Historically, predators have often been blamed for killing people when they were just scavenging the victims of robbers. It’s even possible the poachers may have gotten into a fight among themselves. I’m not pretending I know what happened, I’m just pointing out that just because lions ate the corpses doesn’t prove they killed them.
People here may support the lions, but it is rarely good for predators to be known as man-eaters. If nothing else future poachers are more likely to shoot lions on sight out of fear.
It was a large family of lions, not just one lion, so I doubt they overate.
I’m more concerned that the poachers were neither organically grown, nor certified as fit to eat. I very much hope the lions did not feed any poacher to their children.
“Well, Bob, we’re back and it looks like the Lions have scored three this time.”
“Oh yeah. Looking at the play-by-play, the apex predators were engaging in another foul when the Lions caught them unawares.”
“Looking at the officials now, and they have confirmed it. Though beaten and driven back, the Lions are not out of it, scoring three late in the game. We’ll be back after these messages.”
I’d back a kickstarter for that movie. Here’s a capsule summary of the script:
South Africa, on the reserve. The lioness volunteers for the mission bid farewell to their husband, children, and co-wives.
The lionesses jump on board a truck passing by their wilderness home.
Silhouetted by the sunset, the lionesses ride the truck to the big city.
Early dawn at the Cape Town airport, they stow away on a cargo jet, “Hong Kong cargo airlift ltd” painted on its side.
Night in Hong Kong: A Chinese man buys a bag of grey powder in a shop. As he walks to his car, we see the lionesses hiding in the shadows.
The lions pounce! The bag of powder goes flying! Hold on the bag as off camera, the man’s scream ends in a gurgle. Sounds of ripping flesh as the lionesses eat the buyer of poached rhinoceros horn.
Sunrise on a cargo jet flying above the clouds. Inside, well fed and content, the lionesses wash and nap on the way back home.
How about some visiting aliens discover a badly wounded lioness, the sole survivor of her pride. The aliens patch her up, throwing in some augments for the lolz. Now, Ninja Robo Lion hunts the poachers and their backers across the world. Cue 1980s rock power cords, “Ninja! Robo! Lion!”
I decided to go with magical realism. They’re lions. They don’t talk, they don’t have hands. But somehow, they know where to go and who to hunt, kill, and eat. Their prey: the buyers of products made from poached endangered species. In part two of the series, they eat a collector of carved elephant tusks. In part three, they visit a pet shop that traffics in smuggled birds. Not sure how many episodes we can make out of this concept before it gets old, but in the series finale, they visit Washington DC and eat Eric Trump and Don Trump Jr.
The real beauty of this concept is that if we use real lions and real buyers of endangered species contraband, we don’t have to pay any actors. Lions will work for food, and dead assholes can’t cash checks.
I do hope that lions won’t come to my Bay Area suburb and kill me while I’m lawfully minding my own business. As for criminal poachers, I’m ok with lions being man-eaters. Serves them right. Can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.
Good, good. I think you’re on to something. We must consider the possibility that three innocent children, dressed only in shoes and gloves, were only trying to pet bunnies, when a group of illegal immigrants scared them so, that they ran off to join M-13, leaving their shoes and gloves behind in haste.
