Avoca male lions

[Wyld@Heart]

(11-26-2022, 05:50 AM)SalemMagi Wrote: There is nothing speculative about my statement. These are the facts and the reality of the situation.

For the record... There was no autopsy done to definitively identify DM's cause of death and the Wild Earth cameras that had been documenting his life situation were suddenly publicly prohibited from documenting his condition and movements during the last 2 days of his life.

I found your post difficult to read and bordering on disingenuous. Not everything is a broad conspiracy designed to obfuscate and mislead the public. Sabi Sands blocked off the area; its their reserve and their right to do so and you may find of hard to believe but they do keep the animals best interest at heart as it is literally the lifeblood of what they do. You like to assume yourself as being a 'critical thinker' but you're delving into the realm of conspiracy by assuming the mantle of accuser when it comes to your statements of lions going missing. Kruger is a massive area of land with vast tracts being untraversed with the added burden of poaching to that so lions going missing is a result of one of the two factors; disappearing into untraversed area where they live out unseen or die unseen or unfortunately sometimes a victim to poachers. 

It's not speculation to attribute Dark Mane's demise to what happened with the Buffalo herd. He was seriously trampled, gored and tossed around like a rag doll and the evidence thereafter was undeniable. Alot of people are erroneously commenting on his paw 'healing' the point of which I can identify as when Tessa said 'oh look, his paw is already started to heal, it's half the size it was when we first saw him'. I know this because I was watching at the time and it's akin to saying the cut has stopped bleeding while ignoring the gunshot wound. There were severe internal injuries to him unfortunately; while watching it was clear to see the puncture wounds and the deformity in the chest cavity and three large distinct dimples that formed when he breathed in and out as well as some foam that was clear. Something not mentioned in all of this was the intense heat of that and subsequent days, temperatures were in the high 30's and having stayed in the Lowveld, probably with high humidity as well and in that condition, not near enough any water sources. Injured lions do typically seek out water as even more than food, water is the stuff of life in the bush and with those temperatures in his compromised condition, lack of water would have been an accelerant to his injuries. 

So yeah, he ultimately paid the price of being badly injured by the buffaloes. If he hadn't been injured by them he would be a relatively well fed male lion in, barring an old injury, in relatively good condition and probably still kicking around today as he has been for months since being nomadic. So the ultimate cause is that eventuality regardless of the final act, however it happened. It's folly to assume that for everything to be fact it has to be seen. It's cloudy and raining here as it was last night, I didn't see any stars last night but I know they're there... Reply