An adult lioness has been killed in Queen Elizabeth National Park bringing number of dead lions to twelve in one month.
Early this month eleven lions, including eight cubs and three lionesses, were found dead in the park and conservation officials suspected they had been poisoned by the locals.
These lions had been killed near a popular tourist destination of Hamukungu fishing village in the park.
The deaths were seen as a major blow to not just Uganda’s economy but also its lion preservation efforts.
TrumpetNews understands that the carcass of the lioness was found not so far from Hamukungu by Uganda Wild Life Conservation officials.
It was subjected to a post-mortem and the findings indicated that this lioness had been pregnant- carrying two male cubs.
According to officials this lioness had been killed by male lions after realising it was pregnant.
Usually lions live in a group- pride- that consists of lionesses, cubs and 3 male lions.
But male lions tend to kill the male cubs for fear of losing dominance of the pride.
The post-mortem reports, UWA officials say this lioness was killed because the lions suspected the lioness would give birth to cubs that were likely to be a threat to pride.
This explains why lionesses tend to hide their cubs if males at birth for 6 months.
The lioness was found dead on April 16, 2018.
UWA spokesman Jossy Muhangi confirmed the death saying, “it is true.”
He said, it could have been killed by a hippo, “they normally die after fighting with other animals like buffaloes, elephants and hippos.”
But Muhangi didn’t have more details.
Nature tourism contributes $1.4 billion to Uganda’s economy, according to Ministry of Tourism.