Avoca male lions

[Duco Ndona]

Sabi Sands is under no obligation to share any information with the public, nor does it ban it. What is shared is ultimately up to the people involved to share. 

So in Sassys case. None of the people involved choose to share photos. Which I really cant fault them for as the lion community can be quite terrible at time and nobody wants to turn themselves in a target for online harassment.

Sabi Sands has always euthanized animals.
The exact protocols are unknown. But most likely there is nothing concrete and the situation is up to a council of some sorts

What we do know is however that the biggest factors are wheter or not animals form a threat to people and the amount of impact it has on natural balance.
Sending of an animal that has zero chance of survival but would likely suffered for days is a candidate for that. Most likely Darkmane would probably have been too if he hadnt died first. But first they gave him space, so even if there was a minute chance he could pull through. He wouldnt waste it hiding from people. 

There is absolutely no mystery why Darkmane died 
His ribcage was in pieces. One of his lungs was slowly drowning in fluids.The other possibly collapsed. 
His urine was darkened, suggesting potential damage to his urinal tract or kidneys. Blood was seen oozing from his anus. Implying internal bleeding with a chance of a infection of the abdomen.
His leg was busted, reducing his movement speed to only a few hundred meters a day. There was zero chance of him getting food or reliably even getting water or shelter. Or defend himself from any attacker for that matter. And thats just what was noticed from afar.

The minute he got caught by that herd. His survival chances pretty much dropped to zero. No need for an autopsy to determine what killed him. We can safely close the book on that.

I think this highlight why its important to keep some professionalism if it comes to covering animals. Especially for the WildEarth crew. I can get that they formed a bond with those animals and that they hope they will be alright.. But I fear that by voicing these hopes on camera, they accidentally  gave a lot of people hope where there was little. Reply