Indianapolis lion’s death: Lesson for humanity

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) picked a Reuters’ story and reported: “A lioness has killed the father of her cubs in their pen at a zoo in US, officials say.

“Zuri, 12, attacked 10-year-old Nyack and staff at Indianapolis Zoo could not separate the pair. He died of suffocation. The lions had lived in the same enclosure for eight years, and had three cubs together in 2015 …”

Other media houses have also reported the incident. Some of the reports emphasized the fact that Nyack was an African Lion. It is because of this slant that I have found it necessary to share the knowledge about African Lions, which I learnt through stories my father and mother told me while I was growing up. An African Lion is as harmless as a sheep once it has eaten.

There is a saying “anko bea nnimm gyata” to wit “the one, who has not travelled far does not know a lion”. The story is told of a young boy, who saw a lion with its well-grown mane and rushed to it to hold the mane, shouting to his parents to come and see a sheep with a beautiful mane, to which the lion made the statement “anko bea nnimm gyata”.

Another lion story revolved around the fact that when a lion grew old it was driven away from the pride to go and fend for itself. During its life in the pride, the lion is highly respected to the point that if the lioness caught a prey, it would leave it to the lion to eat first, but as the cubs grew, the dominant position of the lion wanes. It is eventually driven out of the pride and becomes a lone ranger.

Even at the risk of being described as chauvinistic by feminists, I dare say that this is true with humans. As the children grow up, the father becomes a stranger in the house. If he goes out and is returning home, mother and children change the topics they were discussing.

Now let us go back and look at what happened again. From the story it becomes clear that the zookeepers did not know the phenomenon of the unwanted father. If they knew but did nothing about it, then they should be charged with negligence of duty.

Their explanation that they could not separate them is also not acceptable. Are they by any stretch of imagination telling us that they had no tranquillizer darts to immobilize the lioness?

Indianapolis Zoo-Keepers, please, come again.

Columnist: Boakye-Dankwa Boadi