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Thursday, 30 July 2009 15:02 |
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Cameroon lions are facing with great problems because their kills are stolen by hungry humans.
Stealing food from other is known between top predators such as lion, hyena and cheetah, but now there is a significant increase of humans who are stealing food from lions.
African Journal of Ecology has published one particular incident of stealing food from lions by hungry villagers in Cameroon.
Biologist Marjolein Schoe from the Lienden University in The Netherlands was witnessing one of such acts in Benoure National Park, in Cameroon.
They found obvious evidence that local villagers were stealing the newly killed antelope from couple of lions.
Behavior of stealing kills from others amongst animals is known as kleptoparasitism.
Further research revealed that such behavior of local villagers could be more common than it was thought. Scientists believe that this practice could lead to significant decreasing of the number of lions in Cameroon. Image credits
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