The lions of the Kruger National Park are seemingly fed up with roaming the fenced expanse.
Following May 2017’s edition of feline prison break, rangers have today reported that four more male lions have escaped from the park.
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“We are not completely sure about the whereabouts of the lions,” explains SANParks’ spokesperson William Mabasa “and as soon as we have concrete information we will share this”.
The lions had however been seen wandering near the Matsulu, Mpumalanga area.
Soon after the news broke around 1pm SAST, the hashtag #LionsEscape began trending on Twitter. This was also propelled by SANParks’ tweets alerting residents of the roaming cats.
1. #LionsEscape
4 male lions believed to have escaped from the KNP last night, 9 July 2017 were spotted at Matsulu.— SANParks (@SANParks) July 10, 2017
Beyond the potential seriousness of the situation, Twitter users also weighed in with the humour.
#LionsEscape to think i have been trying to escape SARS for the past 10 years. Dololo luck. pic.twitter.com/VsXGj85voc
— Jabu Mokoena (@realkwena) July 10, 2017
#LionsEscape
Mpumalanga residents checking out for scaped lions before coming out of the gate pic.twitter.com/iXKRmZgutu— #ProvokedAlbum (@Mr_Makhubela) July 10, 2017
So there’s Lions that escaped again ?? #LionsEscape pic.twitter.com/n5NRUtQpOO
— Sheldon Cameron (@Sheldon_Cameron) July 10, 2017
Was the fifth lion ever recovered from that last #LionsEscape in May? pic.twitter.com/fBqKpxLC5r
— Sphelele (@SpheDludla) July 10, 2017
And yes, incidentally, that fifth lion that escaped in May was never found.
This is a developing story. Refresh the page regularly for updates.
Feature image: Mario Micklisch via Flickr (CC 2.0 BY, resized)