Tracking experts hopeful of finding five lions on loose in Fochville area

Tracking experts are hopeful of finding the five lions that have been roaming around Fochville on Johannesburg's West Rand for weeks now.

TimesLIVE reported last week that a male lion had been roaming around the area for weeks‚ but earlier this week it was confirmed that five lions had been spotted.

Drew Abrahamson‚ of the Captured in Africa Foundation‚ who had been alerted about the lion by the Green Scorpions last month‚ said the trackers were reconsidering their plans.

"We came across multiple tracks‚ especially around waterholes‚ which made the search difficult. The tracks were crossing over each other so it was not initially possible to say 100% for sure that what we were looking at was a lion's tracks‚" she told TimesLIVE last week.

At the time‚ two donkeys‚ a cow‚ and an impala were victim to the lions.

"We're definitely going to find them. They will be spotted at some point‚" she said.

Abrahamson said they were planning on putting out some bait and traps this weekend in an attempt to capture the lions.

"The biggest challenge at the moment is we are looking in a very big area. The terrain itself is an open area‚ there are the odd koppie‚ and it's actual bushveld‚" she said.

Abrahamson said they believed the lions had escaped from a private owner who didn't necessarily have the right permits.

"There are no game farms or conservation reserves in the area. If they escaped from a private owner who didn't have permits‚ it might explain the fact that no one has come forward yet‚" she said.