A male lion awaits rescue after falling in a well .
Recently, two young lion cubs fell into an open-pit well. They cried out for their mother, who paced and called from the edge of the well, but she was powerless to help them. Unable to climb the well’s sheer walls, the cubs paddled to exhaustion and drowned. Their mother remained by the edge of the well for several days thereafter, calling for her cubs.
This didn’t have to happen. A simple well barricade would have prevented this tragedy.
Most of the open-pit wells are simply holes in the ground and, unlike the well in the photo, not lined with stone. The wells are dug by poor farmers who need the water for crop irrigation, and can’t afford to build barricades.
After the monsoon season, weeds grow rapidly around the well openings, concealing them from view. Adult lions, cubs, other wildlife and sometimes humans fall into these unprotected wells, especially at night.
Twenty-nine lions have perished in the wells in the last two years alone. In a total population of some 350 lions, this is nearly ten percent of the lion population.
Help us prevent these rare and beautiful animals from needlessly being killed and injured.
Click here to learn about how you can help to build a well barricade and save a lion’s life……