Ten lions have been found dead in a suspected poisoning at a wildlife park in Tanzania.
The animals were found dead in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Ndutu on September 18, according to authorities.
In a statement, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) said that preliminary findings suggest the lions died after ‘ingesting poison’.
An expert investigation is now underway to establish what exactly happened and who is responsible.
The deaths come as Ngorongoro continues to be at the centre of long-standing tensions between the authorities and local nomadic communities.
The Tanzanian government has argued that rising population numbers are putting increasing pressure on wildlife habitats.
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After the government launched an eviction programme in 2022, some clashes have even turned deadly.
The number of people living in the conservation area has risen from around 8,000 in 1959 to more than 100,000, according to the authorities.
Ngorongoro is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is home to around 25,000 large animals.
It also has the densest known population of lions, according to UNESCO.
Lions are classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with numbers declining because of habitat loss, falling prey numbers and human-wildlife conflict.
In Kenya’s Amboseli ecosystem, at least 20 elephants have died since June after suspected pesticide poisoning.
However, authorities have not established whether those deaths were accidental or deliberate.
Kenya has previously recorded cases of elephants being poisoned in connection with poaching and human-wildlife conflict, but officials say the recent deaths are the first incident in decades in the region to see elephants killed on such a scale.