OleKiridi and his son Saitoti were taken to the hospital yesterday. They were herding their village’s goats in a sparsely wooded area at Engruman in the hills above the mission. A leopard tried to make off with a goat. OleKiridi and boy gave chase, hoping to drive the leopard off. The cat dropped the goat and sprang at the boy sinking his teeth in the back of the boy’s neck. His father struck the leopard a number of times with his herding staff and got his cheek torn off with a swipe of the beast’s claws. Both have horrendous but not life threatening wounds and are recovering in hospital. The leopard then killed twelve of the goats and made off with one.
Wow how terrible. Glad to hear that OleKiridi and boy survived. I wonder why the leopard killed so many goats to take only one home with him.
From what I’ve seen over the years, this is what leopards do. For example, if a leopard gets into a boma at night, it will kill everything in sight leaving dead animals strewn all over the place. I don’t know the reason for this but have never heard of a leopard to take a single goat or sheep, where there is opportunity to wreck devistation on a herd.
Can’t the Maasai herders keep a peper or gas spray to protect themselves in such situations?
So sad. The spray idea, as Agnieszka mentioned, sounds like a good idea to me.
Now that is an interesting suggestion. That kind of thing doesn’t exist out here as far as I know. I spoke to Narropil on the phone recently and she is doing well.
Thanks Ned. We are in touch.
It’s not the first time, that chui attacks people near Olbalbal. Shouldn’t it be tracked and shooted down?
As far as the people can figure, it is not a single animal involved. If they determined that it was one leopard, they would hunt it down.