lions go on rampage after cubs stolen

news.independent.co.uk...

Witnesses claim a pride of 15 lions attacked homes in Liboi and Kulan in the Garissa district on Sunday night, while villagers were asleep. Police reported that at least three people died and a further two were seriously injured.

I think that the people that stole the lions cubs should give them back !!!
Amazing reaction from the pride.

and people are angry with me for saying we should leave these people to their fate.

Wow, this is some strange behaviour from lions. Lions are not known to obsess over the loss of cubs. They loose cubs all the time, and usually they "move on". In my opinion they have little proof that the lions are indeed "looking for the cubs". I think this is a case of urban legend with a mix of politics from the Kenya side. IMO humans are now part of the lions' diet. It’s known for lions to change their natural diet when they realize that humans are easy prey. I doubt that these lions will stop hunting humans once the cubs are returned.

And on that point - animals usually "reject" their young if the young were handled by humans. This is because they don't recognize the smell of their young anymore. Thus, if the cubs are released to the pride of lions they (the cubs) will most probably be killed or abandoned where they will die from hunger.

Strange indeed.

An interesting followup to other stories I've noticed about similar behavior in wild animals. As we grow away from nature, we tend to think of wild animals as some sort of topological feature and forget that they are living, thinking beings (though not on the same scale that we are) and that they have a culture of some sort (at least the social animals do.)

Tribespeople thought of animals as reasoning creatures and believed we could make "treaties" with them and that consequences could be grave if treaties were forgotten or broken. On a more modern level, we could say that the animals become acclimated to us and expect certain behaviors -- when we step outside these behaviors we are seen as a threat and they behave accordingly.

It sounded like a strange case, I think maybe they are telling it to sugest that
the lions are attacking for their cubs, but now that you mention it, It just could
be that they are attacking for other reasons. Otherwise itsd be like a wierd
orca movie or something. There was a movie like this i cant remember the name,
val kilmer was in it....damn cant remember the name.....

Whose Lion?

Since none of the lions were apparently interviewed, we can only speculate as to their motives.

Thats funny yet true. Apparently the lions were angry at something. We could speculate until our faces are blue, it still wont be 100% accurate. It would be pretty amazing if stories pop up alot like this, then there may be something to go on.....

Originally posted by Gemwolf
I think this is a case of urban legend with a mix of politics from the Kenya side.

I think you hit that nail on the head.