Tuesday
Sep232008
In one strike, a leopard kills 30 goats and sheep
Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 10:03AM At the beginning of this month, up on the escarpment in the Ololtikilte area, a leopard went into a sheep house through the roof and killed 24 sheep and 6 goats.
The Leopard created a hole in the roof of the sheep house.
The owner, Mr. Kotika, has suffered a great loss.
Mr Kotika and his family and neighbours, along with the dead sheep and goats.
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Reader Comments (13)
I was interested to read this artical about the Leopard going through the roof and killing so many Goats and Sheep. First I am sorry for the FAMILY who have lost so much of their live stock as I know how important they would be for the Family's survival.
What did interest me, was the Photograph as the animals had " just been killed and not eaten by the LEOPARD", SO I WAS WONDERING WHY a Leopard would just kill for the sake of killing rather than for it's own food. I did not realise that Animals in the wild killed for the fun of it, always' thought they only made a kill when they needed to eat.
Regards
BRIDGET KOTCHIE
Yes, the same question crossed my mind. I know Lions kill Hyenas, just because they "hate" them, but a Leopard on such a killing spree? Never heard of before.
i was not there so all i can do is to guess like the leopard went in for food initially. once it was there, the goats and sheep panic; which in return drew out the killer instinct in the leopard or any predator. once the leopard's killer instinct kicked in and since it was only an animal driven mostly on instinct, it killed what ever had its attention. we have seen prey that do not run and their non movement confuses the predators around them for a while till the prey moves. predators i think rarely kill for fun since killing requires energy and they may risk injury which they cannot afford ( they just can't go to the nearest clinic or get a house call by their doctor ). the young ones do play their dead prey or live prey once it is caught like a killer whale with its seal.
Thanks Sauwah, that makes sense and I think it is the most logical explanation.
It is very normal for a leopard, once in an enclosed space, to kill all of the animals to be found there. I think this is because he doesn't like to see any movement once he is there, he wants to feel safe as he takes a kill from the place.
The other day we also saw four lionesses kill eight wildebeest but they only ate one.
Most of these cases result in the death of several animals. It seems rather like a fox in a chicken coop
What happens now? Are the villagers determided to find this leopard and kill it? Are there any plans in place in order to compensate Mr.Kotika this severe loss?
Nothing happens now. The villagers will not hunt the leopard and Mr Kotika will not be compensated for his loss.
Which sounds okay, but is not at all ideal. The communities that surround the Mara Triangle should benefit from living next to a conservation area and not have to suffer such enormous losses. But until our financial situation is better the compensation scheme will not be able to recommence. The communities must be commended for their stance.
Approx. how much are we talking about? What is the value of a sheep or a goat and would it be possible to raise some money for Mr.Kotika? I suppose these kind of incidents don't happen that often.
A good goat on the market at the moment is about 5 - 6,000 and a sheep is slightly cheaper, at around 4,000 KES. So lets say about 150,000 KES, roughly US $2,000 in total.
Loss of livestock is quite common on the escarpment, which is why we had the compensation scheme in place, and which is why after February we tried to raise money for livestock losses. Unfortunately, for the scheme to work, it would have to be the same across the board, we can't compensate some owners and not others otherwise it would create a lot of tension between us and the community.
We either compensate everyone, or not at all. We are still looking for funding that would keep the scheme in place for the long term.
How did they know it was a leopard? Did anyone see it?
It's most likely to be a leopard because it came in through the roof - there aren't any other predators that would make such an entrance or exit.
if you look closely, the throats have been mangled; leapards will normally do this to suck on the blood of the animals. Probably is more nutritious to them and does not entail carrying away the carcass...we saw this years back in inkorrkorri when a leopard attacked our sheep boma and killed close to ten animals before someone raised the alarm.