Tanzanian lodge in court over leopard attack to French tourist’s son

Some people think that they know the wilds of Arica and I'm sorry they don't always appreciate the dangers or things like this wouldn't happen.
If the parents knew Afica at all they would have kept their children close and always escorted them-controlled them.
I'm so sorry for their loss but its the wilds of Africa we are talking about here not some zoo in Las Vegas or Paris.
The lodge employees did warn the visitors that night and the sad thing is that some of the visitors just don't respect the staff enough and listen to them. It happens all the time and a lot of 'tourists' and ex pats are so out of touch with nature or unable to appreciate it for the wild and dangerous place that it truly is. They don't see the dangers at all.

They drive around in rented or hired cars and get into troube all the time- tourists, expats and African people do it.
Only recently a mother allowed her child to wander towards elephants at mid day at the same lodge-she lost track of her child..it happens all the time. The staff save silly parents children all the time there. And I've seen it there more than a few times.

Know this-it was an accident caused by bad judgement from the parents that stems from a westerners perspective on nature in Africa. Sad but true.

I have been lucky enough to have traveled extensively to over 30 countries including 16 in Africa; I have been in thousands of new situations, new environments and many wild habitats, I have been in many scrapes and am thankfully still here, but I have learned, sometimes the hard way it must be said. On arrival for the first time in Cairo, Khartoum, Addis Ababa, Arusha, Lusaka or Johannesburg, or in The Okavango Delta, The Serengeti or even at a campimg site in Lake Duluti near Arusha, I am wary and cautious; it is new and unknown and being cautious has survival value and is instinctive. I often think of this when watching the visitors from America or elsewhere when they first arrive on safari, their questions are usually along these lines: “Are there lions near the lodge and will they eat me?”
“Will I catch malaria from that large and terrifying insect over there?”
“What noises will I hear tonight and which ones should I be afraid of?”
“Can I eat the salad or drink the tap water?”
All these questions are normal responses and have survival value; they are precautionary, they are valid fears of the unknown. Newly arriving expatriates must feel the same to some extent. Imagine if they have never lived in a wild place, a place where wild animals roam, a place
that is totally unfamiliar. How could they possibly relax, unless they are somehow tuning out from their natural instincts?

Remember that a high percentage of Westerners and many Tanzanians for that matter, fear the wilds and are illogically terrified of snakes or dung beetles or the darkness of the forest.
Ignorance is bliss my foot! Ignorance can be dangerous!
Again these fears have survival value and it is better to be cautious, ask questions and not venture into the unknown without help. To climb Kilimanjaro without an experienced guide is foolish; to walk at midnight slightly drunk down the high street of Goma when there are no street lights is asking for problems, especially when you have just arrived in Goma for the first time! Being cautious when in a new environment comes naturally does it not? Isn’t it wise to know a habitat well before relaxing in it?
We don’t have to be paranoid, just careful and ask questions. Surely it is our own responsibility to be and do so?
The percentage of first time visitors to the wilds of the bush, that are over cautious (as you would expect) is very high and I would guess it to be well over 90%. But there is always one or two in a hundred that get out of the car to walk too close to an elephant without asking if it’s okay, or one that strides off into the tall grass to relieve them self not realizing that ticks and snakes or even a buffalo could be hidden there. Somehow their survival instincts are turned off or are suppressed. Some people in this world are just like that and you would think that they would have been cut out of the gene pool by now! But no, these types of people exist and breed and are generally living in cities. This is perhaps the reason such people are able to survive. If they were all cast back in time to a world dominated by wild animals they would probably perish! They come from the cities and out into the wilds, sometimes alone or without having read a book about how dangerous wild animals can be. Don’t they watch TV?
This lack of being in touch with the wilderness manifests itself in many ways but perhaps the most common one is the fear of having a leak, a pee, in the wilds of the bush. When on safari this fear, particularly amongst ladies, leads them to not drink enough water on safari and then they suffer from mild dehydration and get sick. Many lady visitors from overseas have used sit down toilets all their lives and have lost the ability to squat! Dear me, poor things! Recently I was introduced to a new device which we dubbed ‘The she-pee’ or ‘the pee-equalizer’, this device was a plastic tube that slotted behind the zipper and under the ladies underwear allowing them to relieve themselves whilst standing up like a man! The answer to all ladies prayers or city based ladies finding a solution to an age old problem, whatever the inspiration, it worked! We are indeed an ingenious species.

But I am digressing from my main point which is; when in an unfamiliar environment be cautious, even over cautious and ask for advice if unsure of the dangers.
This tragic incident in Tarangire of children running around a lodge in the early evening and of one child being taken by a wild animal resulting in that child’s death is indeed traumatic to all concerned. But remember this incident was at night, the wild animal’s time to hunt. This child died from the wounds this wild animal inflicted and a family’s happiness was shattered in an instance. How many people die needlessly or accidentally on Kilimanjaro every year, how many children die of curable diseases like malaria or dysentery, each and every day? How many suicide bombers or rebel soldiers tear a family apart by killing the family’s children, far too many but our environments change constantly as well.

Today European parents don’t let their children walk to school as often, they don’t let them play in the park as much and it is deemed irresponsible to leave a young child alone in a room whilst staying at a hotel on holiday. The story of the supposed kidnap of an English couple’s daughter from a hotel room in Portugal hit our headlines constantly this past year. If you are at the beach, on safari or relaxing in the bar or around a swimming pool at a lodge in Tarangire National Park, with children, don’t you worry about what they are up to all of the time? If the parents of these children in Tarangire were concerned at all wouldn’t one of them have stayed in the tent with the children? Why they were not concerned is beyond me, ignorance is bliss or dangerous? Our World is full of tragic incidents, either accidental or because of us letting our guard down. We are hardened by this constant loss of innocent human life; we are numbed by it all. For the families these losses of loved ones are life changing events and unless it happens to your family there is no way to understand their grief. Time is the only healing process that seems to work. But to delay the healing process is to perpetuate the pain, continue the torture and avoid the truth, the truth often hurts, but the truth of this matter is that the parent’s were responsible for the children safety , not the lodge! From the moment of birth these parents were/are responsible. On holiday in an unfamiliar environment they are also responsible and should have been on high alert all the time. I’ll say it again- one parent should have been in the tent with these children! When visiting a National Park you are coming to view wild animals are you not, in a wild place. There are obvious dangers are there not? Especially where children are concerned!

To take revenge is a deadly sin and with good reason.Sadly revenge seems the solution to some, an eye for an eye, making everyone blind it has been said by many! Vengeful behavior drove the Sicilian Mafia to perpetuate murder for generations; it causes suicide bombers to kill indiscriminately, Nations like India and America to have civil unrest or indeed civil wars and in India’s case for a Nation to split into two. As one of the seven deadly sins, vengeance is cancerous, it festers and distorts and it destroys people and everyone around them. It makes the person or persons seeking revenge to distort facts and challenge the truth so blindly the death or atrocities continue as if yesterday and life never returns to any form of normality.

I feel so strongly about this particular incident at Tarangire Lodge and the seemingly absurd continuation of pain for everyone involved, and this includes the surviving child. You see the child was not alone at the time of the attack, two related children were running in the dark together, in a wild place, a National Park, an environment they knew nothing about, and obviously, in my opinion, an environment the children’s’ parents knew nothing about either. The children’s and parent survival instincts were turned off; they had all relaxed in a wilderness place they knew very little about. The parents were in the bar drinking and the children were running away from their tent on their own in the twilight dark with no escort! It is easy to see why someone might turn off and relax, but it is foolish and irresponsible just as the tourist getting out of the car to walk closer to a wild elephant wanting a better photograph is or being drunk in Goma in the dark is. You are almost asking for a problem.

In my opinion the sheer refusal by the parents to now accept some form of responsibility is unbelievable and selfish in the extreme; of course initially they cannot accept that they may have contributed to the cause of this accident, and that refusal is understandable to start with, but to drag the incident through court is vengeful and continues the agony. This vengeful path could harm more lives and be an open wound that festers and blinds forever.

The less traveled mind and the city living that creates a loss of basic bush survival instinct combines with the city dwellers comfort zone that goes into the wilderness ill prepared. All these realities contribute too creating those people that would sue someone (anyone) for a natural event such as an earthquake or a rock fall or the natural instincts of a wild animal such as a leopard that has survived on these instincts as a species for millions of years. This is at the bottom of all this. But also vengeful behavior needs someone to be blamed, exposed, someone must pay and someone other than themselves must be responsible! As I said this response is understandable to begin with, the loss of a child is tragic enough but to pit financial resources over long periods of time and to blame others in such a fashion is just not going to bring back their child or indeed the leopards that were killed by TANAPA in response to this incident! Yes TANAPA KILLED AT LEAST TWO LEOPARDS! A virtual world is taking over and when reality strikes the real world suddenly floods back in again. Some people are overcome with grief and disbelief to such an extent that they cannot and will not wake up to the fact that our world is not perfect and accidents happen. Accidents often happen when we enter an unfamiliar habitat or environment and we turn off our natural instincts of caution and self preservation, when we doze off whilst driving a car or we pick up a hot cooking pot forgetting that it contains boiling water.

This seeming refusal by the parents to start the healing process and get on with their lives whilst continuing to publicly accuse others for the behavior of a wild predator that responds to millions of years of natural instincts and survival strategies by trying to kill a small mammal ( that happens to be human) is beyond understanding and needs to end now or their lives and that of their surviving child will be forever damaged.

I know that the lodge were not feeding this leopard - in fact I also know that certain members of the staff had repeatedly warned/told the parents of this child to stop their children from running around the lodge at night because a leopard is often seen close to the lodge.

Tanzanias are very polite people and usually never scream at visiting tourist- its a pity they diidn't as this child may well be still alive- but it is not done is it? The customer is always right- but not this time- the customer was irresponsible!

Controling 75+ tourists in a safari lodge is hard enough for the management but to expect the lodge staff to watch all visiting children (sometimes up to 25 or more) all the time is totally unrealistic and just passing the buck!

Truth will out!

Absolutely agree with Susy T. Humans always to blame. Parents for not watching their children and lodge staff for feeding the leopard with leftovers. As usually the animal has to pay, with his life unfortunately.

Commenting further. If the safari lodge had clients sign a waiver, understanding they assume risks while traveling, then the law suit is invalid.
Regardless, Ruth H, commenting 19 September, is unrealistic. Tourists take safaris to witness wildlife in action, the closer the better. So the lodge employees give them what they ask for by enticing the animals with table left overs. Had the leopard attacked and killed animal prey instead of the boy, the tourists would have cheered the action excitedly.

I agree with Suzy T (September 19 comments). When will people learn that wild animals are just that -- wild. We should respect their habitat, be it on safari, at a zoo, circus, or wherever. I grieve every time the attacking animal is killed, clearly for revenge. It doesn't bring the victim back to life. The fault always is with the humans. How dare they sue.