Villagers in Central Anatolia live in ‘fear of lion’

ÇORUM

Villagers living in the Central Anatolian province of Çorum’s Bayat district have been living in fear of a “lion” for a while.

Since their livestock has been destroyed by an unknown wild animal recently, those living in Emirhalil village claim that it was a lion that was attacking the herds.

Authorities took action when the attacked herd’s Afghan shepherd was injured and two women who went on pasture to collect grass at a different time “verified” that the wild animal was a lion.

The soldiers were searched in the reed area where the lion was claimed to be seen and where the livestock perished.

As aerial scanning was carried out by a drone, Nature Conservation and National Parks teams also placed three camera traps in the region.

Local people occasionally search around the village with binoculars and rifles.

There is no clear information on whether or not the lion lived at any time in Anatolia, but it is known that leopards lived in the region until the 1970s.

The last Anatolian leopard in the country was shot in 1974, approximately 200 kilometers from Çorum province, in Ankara’s Beypazarı district.