A 42-year-old man in KwaMbonambi in northern KwaZulu-Natal is convinced he came across a lion during his morning jog this past weekend, despite local wildlife organisations questioning the validity of his claims.

Thokozani Msholo says he froze with fear during his run at around 5AM on Sunday, the encounter happening close to Richards Bay Minerals. Over to News24:

“I [try to] jog every morning, depending on how busy I am,” said the businessman.

He said that he had only jogged about 100m when he encountered what he believes was a lion.

“It crossed the road very slowly, from one bush into another. It was huge and brown in colour. I am convinced it was a lion.”

With his heart racing, Msholo hid behind a tree and prayed that the beast would pass by without noticing him.

“Even though I was petrified, I had a good look at it until it disappeared into the bushes.”

He waited a while and then followed the direction the animal had taken and snapped a photograph of the spoor.

Asked if he was not afraid the animal would attack him while he was investigating he said: “Of course I was scared, but I wanted to get evidence of what I saw.”

So first up let’s see this photo of the spoor then…

And then what a confirmed lion spoor looks like…

Hmm, there’s certainly some room for doubt if you compare those two pics – but that’s not stopping Msholo from sticking to his guns:

“I know what a lion looks like. That was not a big dog, it was a lion. I am saying that they should investigate further so that we don’t hear of reports that community members were attacked in the area.”

For the local community’s sake we can only hope he is wrong, a morning jog is unfortunate enough without having to duke it out with a big cat.

[source:news24]