For the cattle-herder, it was Newton's Third Law in practice. Lions north of Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve killed a couple of his cows, so he took an equal and opposite reaction, and poisoned three lions. The man was arrested and admitted to killing the lions, which is illegal in Kenya.
To understand why the Maasai are killing lions in Kenya, you have to realize that there is a big difference between the way Africans who live among predators think about them, and the way Westerners do. Tourists will spend thousands of dollars on safari vacations for the chance to see a lion in the wild. For the Maasai, there is nothing on earth more important than cattle. So if lions are preying on your cattle, some Maasai will risk jail time to kill the lions. Kenya's wildlife and its people now clash like never before. The country's human population has risen to 40 million, putting people and animals in competition. The situation became more dire after a punishing multi-year drought killed cattle and, in some areas, most of the wildlife.
Source: African Agriculture Blog, story by Nick Wadhams
