Following rumours that a wild lion had been spotted in the area, three armed Kenyan wildlife officers must have been on high alert as they carefully approached a farmstead.
But their excitement quickly changed to surprise when all they discovered in the hedge was a shopping bag with a lifelike depiction of a lion’s head on it.
After seeing what he thought was a lion close outside his employer’s home in Kinyana hamlet, about a kilometre from the Mt Kenya National Park, a farm labourer sounded the alarm.
The bag was hung in the hedge by the home owner, who had planted avocado tree seedlings in it and didn’t want them to dry out.
Although there had been no recent reports of stray lions in the area, people had claimed that some of their animals had gone missing, according to local chief Cyrus Mbijiwe.
He said that his officers treated the situation with prudent caution ensuring everyone was safe first when wildlife officials then realised it was a bag.
When the wildlife wardens arrived, the homestead owner was gone. When she returned home, she was informed about the lion and told to enter her house by the door on the opposite side of the building from the hedge, so she didn’t instantly associate the tale with the seedling bag.
The shopping bag was placed precisely beneath a window, and when it was opened, officials discovered that the alleged lion didn’t have a body, but was instead a shopping bag.
Despite the false alert, the Kenya Wildlife Service praised the public for raising a warning in order to reduce any potential conflict that could have occurred.
Below is a video report on the incident on May 5th by the AyFacts Channel on YouTube.
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