Abutia-Kloe, March 27, GNA - Game Wardens at Kalakpa Game Reserve at Abutia-Kloe are on the heels of a prowling animal, said to be a lion, which had killed and eaten up cattle where kraals are located around the Ho Municipality. News of the animal broke out about five weeks ago when it reportedly mauled and nearly killed Togbe Dzamesi II, Chief of Adaklu-Wuakpe, near Wumenu, who is currently recuperating at the Volta Regional Hospital in Ho.

The marauding animal was said to have been spotted at Akrofu-Agove near Ho on Thursday March 26 where it attacked and devoured a cow in a kraal creating panic once more in and around. Ms Rejoice Mensah and Mr Moses Zigah, both Senior Technical Officers at the Game Reserve told Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Friday that the team trailing the animal was yet to see it but had come across paw marks and carcasses left in its trail.

Mr Zigah and Ms Mensah said indications from the paw marks were that the animal was of the cat family. They said within the last five weeks there had been news of the animal being seen or carcasses left at various places in its trail. Earlier at another village near, Abutia-Kloe, a farmer claimed he saw it, a lion, early morning, clawing a goat and he (the farmer) climbed a tree to avoid it (lion). Mr Zigah and Ms Mensah said a lion was indeed a big cat, normally nocturnal, which lives in deciduous vegetation, secured in rocky areas. They could not however, remember the last time an animal like the one being described was seen or heard of in the area and could not tell where it could come from.

Mr Zigah, who had worked at the Mole Game Reserve, said paw marks indicated that, the animal had been in an out of the Kalakpa Game Area lately.

The Wardens said there was an animal corridor, between Ghana and Togo stretching from Metrikasa, near Dzodze, from where the animals often entered Ghana moved northwards and went back into Togo. Mr Zigah stressed that the import of the attempts to track down the animal was not to kill it, but guide it back into its habitat.