Another lion endangered at Jos Park

 The iron cage confining a lioness at the Jos Wildlife Park in Plateau State is so weak that residents are afraid the animal may escape and jeopardise the lives of innocents people. Daily Trust inquiries at the park shows that the cage, as many others confining other animals, was provided in 1972 at the establishment […]

 The iron cage confining a lioness at the Jos Wildlife Park in Plateau State is so weak that residents are afraid the animal may escape and jeopardise the lives of innocents people.

Daily Trust inquiries at the park shows that the cage, as many others confining other animals, was provided in 1972 at the establishment of the park by Sylvia Sykes, a British professor of Zoology, who was contracted by Joseph Gomwolk, then governor of the old Benue-Plateau, to put up the park.

“The cage is old and weak, and needs to be replaced. It was provided in 1972,” John Doy, General Manager of Plateau State Tourism Corporation, managers of the park told Daily Trust yesterday.

Mr. Doy had said last year, that: “The park is in a state of dilapidation. The cage confining the lions is rusty, and weak. It has been patched once, but it’s still weak because of lions’ urine; their urine is acidic and rusts up the cage.”  

 Jos Wildlife Park is known for having experience with lions breaking out from that cage, which is located at the eastern gates of the park, the last being on December 2, 2015 when a three-year old lion bolted out without difficulty. Personnel at the park had said Leo, as the young lion was named, had been hungry for days, and was probably on its way to finding food when it jumped unto a raised platform, and forced the cage to escape confinement.

 The lion was killed by a team of soldiers invited by the management of the park, drawing worldwide condemnation by animal rights activists who insisted that the park needed to have used trained personnel to demobilise the animal, using tranquilizers and dart guns. 

But Doy said the corporation did not have tranquilizers, and decided on inviting the troops as last resort to save the lives of residents of neighbouring areas including Federal Low Cost, Angulu Jos and Tudun Wada.