In Kinyana village, Kenya, a farmhand recently raised the alarm about a stray lion lurking on his employer's homestead.
Wildlife officers were called to investigate. When they did, they found that the lion did not have a body... because it was just a shopping bag full of avocado seedlings.
Kinyana village lies near Mt. Kenya National Park, and while there had been no recent lion sightings in the area previously, local chief Cyrus Mbijiwe told the BBC,
Residents had complained that some of their livestock had gone missing.
"We treated the incident with a lot of caution and seriousness. We first ensured everyone was safe then wildlife officials investigated and discovered that it was a bag," the chief said.
The bag was placed below a hedge, so from a distance, one could see how the mistake was made, but as the game wardens approached they noticed that the hedge was below a window.
The homestead owner was not home when the wildlife wardens arrived, but she was contacted and told about the lion. Turns out, she had placed them under the hedge to prevent them from drying out!
Despite the false alarm, the Kenya Wildlife Service said it,
...lauded the public for raising an alarm in order to mitigate a possible conflict.
Of course the lesson here folks, is that you shouldn't just leave your shopping bags "lion" around.
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