A pride of lions fatally mauled a tourist while he showered
under a tree as darkness fell at an unfenced campsite in a nature reserve, a conservationist
said.
Peter Evershed, a 59-year-old Zimbabwean businessman, was
attacked by five lions at the Chitake Springs bush camp, a wildlife viewing
area near the Mana Pools nature reserve, said Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force
head Johnny Rodrigues on Thursday.
Evershed was the last of his group of family and friends to
take a shower Saturday. They heard Evershed scream and raced to the showers but
he was already dead from a gash to the throat, Rodrigues said.
The lions retreated only after a safari operator pulled up
in a vehicle with its headlights on and fired shots into the air, Rodrigues
told Zimbabwe Herald Online.
Rodrigues said a surge in hunting amid Zimbabwe's economic
meltdown has made animals more "traumatized" and dangerous to humans,
though lions are generally not killed by poachers.
"We appeal to everyone to exercise extreme caution.
Animals have become extremely unpredictable," Rodrigues said.
Witnesses say three elephants and three buffalo were
illegally killed to feed participants at a political meeting of President
Robert Mugabe's party in western Zimbabwe last month. The military, meanwhile,
has denied witness reports it is shooting wildlife in "Operation
Nyama," or Operation Meat in the local language, to feed hungry soldiers.
Last month, South African business executive Don Hornsby was
killed by an elephant in the nearby Matusadona preserve. Hornsby had helped
fund feeding programs for orphaned animals.
Shortly before Hornsby's death, veteran conservationist
Steve Kok died when a wounded buffalo charged him as he was destroying traps
and wire snares laid by poachers.
And in September, businessman Geoff Blythe was attacked by a
female elephant as he rode a bicycle ride near his home in the lakeside town of
Kariba, 230 miles (370 kilometers) northwest of Harare. He barely survived the
nightmarish encounter in an area normally considered safe from marauding
animals.
Blythe, also a volunteer in conservation programs, told
family and friends he tried to pedal as fast as he could from the cow elephant
and her calf but the bike chain dislodged.
He dumped the bike and ran but there were no trees or
powerline towers near enough to climb. He threw himself into a gully of soft
sand as the elephant overtook him. The elephant gored him in the back and thigh
and kicked him into thorny bushes before backing off. Blythe, hospitalized for
life-threatening wounds, also suffered cuts and fractured ribs.
"He was lucky to escape with his life," Rodrigues
said.
