Horrified tourists on safari find lion with snare around his neck

Two holidaymakers were left in tears after a lion with a snare around his neck staggered out in front of their safari jeep.

Meliska Viljoen and Meike Pettit saw the lion in agony as the snare was stuck extremely tightly around its neck as they drove thought the Kruger National Park on Saturday.


See also: BBC's Big Cat Diary lions poisoned in Kenya

See also: Tourists make mating lion really cross (video)

Speaking to the Mirror, Meike said: "It was an absolutely horrific experience for us. Meliska was really in tears.

"It was just the two of us out for a drive and straight away when we came across this lion you could see there was something wrong.

"It was shaking its head from side to side, clearly irritated by the snare.

"It was very tight, quite shocking."

The pair immediately went back to camp to tell rangers, who initially thought he may have to be euthanised.

The Nhongo Safaris shared pictures of the lion before and after he was treated and wrote on Facebook: "Last week late afternoon a young male lion was spotted with a snare around his neck.

"Clearly in pain the sighting was reported to rangers in the Kruger National Park.

"Yesterday (5 January 2016) the lion was spotted and rangers along with vets headed in his direction to see if he could be saved.

"After darting, vets moved in, removed the snare, assessed the damaged and started treatment.

"The last photo is the young male lion finding his feet after treatment. (he was monitored for the rest of the day).

"Well done to all rangers and vets involved!"

Park rangers believe hunters may have laid the snare in the hope of catching smaller animals for food.

The Express reports that the Kruger National Park employs an anti-poaching unit, but are battling around 15 groups of poachers.