Armed Officers Called In After 'Stray Lion' Spotted Near House

Armed wildlife officers in Kenya were called out to reports of a stray lion on the loose – but soon discovered it was actually something much more mundane.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘who could mistake an inanimate object for a lion?’ But just look at it:

Twitter/Kenya Wildlife Service

See? Easy mistake to make, isn’t it? Turns out, it was just a harmless shopping bag.

A farm hand in Kinyana – around one kilometre away from the Mount Kenya National Park – first spotted the bag and, somewhat understandably, mistook it for a lion and raised the alarm. 

But when three armed wildlife officers arrived on the scene they soon realised that rather than a deadly predator they were actually dealing with a bag full of avocado seedlings. 

According to the BBC, the bag and seedlings had been placed in the hedge by the homeowner to stop them from drying out. 

The owner of the house was out when the wildlife officers were called, meaning there was no one on hand to tell them about the mix-up. 

Twitter/Kenya Wildlife Service

When she did arrive home, she was warned there was a stray lion and told to enter the property from the back – away from the hedge and ‘lion’. 

Given the fact she’d been told there was a lion out there on the prowl, the woman didn’t initially twig that they were actually talking about her bag.

The bag was only discovered due to the fact that it was placed directly below a window and, upon opening the window, they realised that this ‘lion’ didn’t have a body. 

Local chief Cyrus Mbijiwe told the BBC that until the call came through there hadn’t been any recent sighting of a lion on the loose but that some residents had said livestock had gone missing – so I guess you can understant the panic. 

Twitter/Kenya Wildlife Service

He told the BBC: "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.”

Meanwhile, the Kenya Wildlife Service were concerned about the possibility of ‘Human Wildlife Conflict’ so sent out three of their officials. 

Although it turned out to be a lot of fuss over nothing, the Kenya Wildlife Service praised the farm hand for ‘raising an alarm in order to mitigate a possible conflict’.