How quickly can a lion kill you? In the right circumstances it can happen in a terrifying manner. They are capable of attaining speeds of about 50 mph, leaping more than 30 feet, and being able to subdue animals that are much larger than humans. With their strong jaws and muscular bodies lions are one of Africa’s most dangerous predators.
There is a more unpleasant aspect to being at the top of the food chain, since lions come under serious threats from humans such as habitat destruction, poaching and trophy hunting. The 2015 shooting of Cecil, an African lion that was 13 years old, by a US trophy hunter caused widespread international anger and once again drew attention to the dangers encountered by wild lion populations.
It is true that lions generally do not hunt humans and that such attacks are relatively uncommon, they can still occur if people go into lion territory, disturb them, or fail to appreciate just how dangerous even captive or habituated lions can be. In some cases, lions have even come to prefer human prey, for example the notorious man-eaters of Tsavo in Kenya and of Njombe in Tanzania.
A tragic incident concerned 29-year-old Kate Chappell, a skilled visual effects artist who had taken part in the making of major films such as Captain America, Godzilla and Game of Thrones. In 2015 she was volunteering at a wildlife preserve in South Africa to help protect endangered animals from poachers.
While she was on a day off, Kate went to the Lion and Safari Park close to Johannesburg. Although the park let visitors drive through big enclosures in which lions and other animals roamed at large, customers were constantly reminded to keep their windows shut.
Kate was a passenger in the car while her guide, Pierre Potgieter, was driving through the park, when a group of lions passed near them, she is said to have rolled down her window in order to take a photograph.
The decision would have consequences.
Ben Govender, who was in a different car, took a photograph of a lioness standing beside Kate’s car. When people realised that something was going on, they started honking their horns, but by then the lioness had already reached the open window.
The lioness rushed into the vehicle and bit Kate on the shoulder, an adult lioness is capable of exerting enormous pressure with its jaws and the attack resulted in catastrophic injuries.
For a short time the animal moved back, dropping blood from its mouth as it looked at the car with Kate’s window still open.
Then it attacked again.
At once Potgieter set about protecting Kate, he threw himself across the vehicle and tried to drive the lioness away, but the huge predator was much stronger than he was, and during the struggle he injured his arm in his attempt to save his passenger.
The lioness finally withdrew, and Potgieter, in a desperate attempt to stop Kate’s bleeding, pressed on her wounds! however, she had already lost too much blood, so by the time the emergency responders arrived it was too late.
Kate’s death came as a shock to her family, her friends and the international film industry. At the same time, the safari park came under heavy examination, since this incident was not the first serious attack in which a visitor had opened a vehicle window.
Two months previously an Australian tourist by the name of Brendan Smith was said to have been attacked by a lion in that park. He managed to survive and afterwards admitted that he ought never to have opened the window.
Wildlife experts have on several occasions stressed that lions which are brought up around people are still wild animals, and Kevin Richardson, who is known as the Lion Whisperer, has cautions that lions in parks may lose some of their natural fear of people, which makes careless interactions particularly dangerous.
After Kate had died, the lioness was not given a euthanasia but was instead moved to a secluded part of the park, away from the tourists.
The fact that Kate’s case is still a tragic example shows that safari rules are not merely recommendations. The reason why visitors are instructed to keep their windows shut is that the vehicle might be the only thing preventing a tourist from coming into contact with a wild predator.
