Ruchira just sent me a story from CNN about how three Ethiopian lions seem to have scared of a 12-year-old girl's would be rapists, guarded her for half a day, and then padded away when the police arrived to rescue her:
The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo said Tuesday by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, some 560 kilometers (348 miles) west of the capital, Addis Ababa."They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female.. . ."If the lions had not come to her rescue then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage," he said.What caught my attention particularly, though, was the description of Ethiopian Lions as having black manes. Black manes! I'd never heard of seen of black maned lions before! They're pretty rare. Here are two pictures I found in a Google image search search.
