The lion has since been put down, the university said. (Representative pic)
A zookeeper who had been taking care of lions for almost a decade was killed by one of the big cats at a Nigerian university. According to the BBC, Olabode Olawuyi was in charge of the zoo at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). He was attacked Monday when he was feeding the lions. His colleagues tried to save him but by the time they could do anything, one of the lions had already fatally wounded him, the university said in a statement. The lion has since been put down, the statement added.
Mr Olawuyi was a veterinary technologist who had been “taking care of the lions since they were born on campus about nine years ago,” university’s spokesman Abiodun Olarewaju said, as per the outlet.
“Tragically, the male lion killed the man who had been feeding them. We never knew what came over the male lion that it had to attack [him],” Mr Olarewaju said.
The university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Adebayo Simeon Bamire, said he was “saddened” by the incident and ordered a thorough investigation.
Separately, the students’ union leader, Abbas Akinremi, described the incident as unfortunate and said that the attack was caused by “human error” after the zookeeper had forgotten to lock the door after feeding the lions. Mr Akinremi also paid tribute to Mr Olawuyi. He was a “good and humble man, who attended to us nicely whenever we went to the zoo,” he said.
Abba Gandu, who has been feeding lions for more than 50 years at a zoo in Kano in northern Nigeria, also described the incident as unfortunate and said more safety measures were needed. “This incident wouldn’t in any way affect me personally as feeding lions is what I want to do until I die,” said Mr Gandu. He added that his worst experience was when a baboon he was trying to feed bit his finger.
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Following the incident, Nigerians on social media also shared graphic images of the mauling at the university in Osun state. The university community is in mourning. As per BBC, a delegation has also gone to the family of Mr Olawuyi to offer their condolences.
Meanwhile, in a similar incident in India, a man was mauled to death by a lion at a Tirupati zoo. Authorities at the Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park said the man, identified as 38-year-old Prahlad Gujjar from Alwar in Rajasthan, had entered the enclosure after getting into an unauthorised section that was not open to the public. He had reportedly ignored a caretaker’s warnings to back off, climbed a fence that is over 25 feet tall and jumped into the enclosure. The lion, named Dongalpur, mauled Gujjar to death before the caretaker could act.