Residents of the Kiangua location in Meru County on Thursday morning woke up to a shocking scene of a suspected 'stray lion' that was 'hiding' in a hedge.
Locals who noticed the suspected "lion" made frantic calls to KWS asking for help to contain the animal and take it back to its requisite habitat.
In an interesting turn of events, the Kenya Wildlife Service Meru team swiftly rushed to the scene in a bid to mitigate a possible Human-Wildlife Conflict case only to discover otherwise.
"On arrival, KWS rangers were astonished to find out that the ‘alleged lion’ was a lion-printed carrier bag," KWS said.
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The incident has gone viral on social media given that many residents were fooled that a Carrefour carrier bag was a lion.
KWS has however praised members of the public for the manner in which they handled the situation.
"Despite this being a false alarm, we laud the public for raising an alarm in order to mitigate a possible conflict.
Members of the public have been asked to be cautious always in handling wildlife to avoid incidents that can lead to deaths and injuries.
"Kindly call our hotline/Toll-Free number 0800 597 000 for assistance and reporting of any wildlife emergency," KWS noted.
The village is near the Meru National Park which is billed as magnificent wildlife the park with Lions, the endangered Grevy’s Zebra and many more wild animals.
