One of Africa’s oldest lions has been killed by Maasai herders in Kenya, conservation groups said today.

The male lion, aged 19, was speared to death after breaking into an enclosure near Amboseli Park in southern Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesman Paul Ginaro said. Lunkito “was an old lion who had trouble finding food, and farmed animals are easy prey. Under normal circumstances, he would go foraging in the park,” Ginaro explained.

Lions in Africa typically live 12-18 years in the wild, according to the South African organization Cats for Africa.

In 2021, KWS presented Lunkito as a “legendary feline warrior” who defended his territory for a decade.

“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of the death of Lunkito (2004-23), the oldest male lion in our ecosystem and perhaps in all of Africa,” the Kenyan organization Lion Guardians said on Facebook, describing him as “a symbol of resistance and coexistence.”

About 2,500 lions live in Kenya today, based on their first (and most recent to date) census, which took place in 2021. In recent years, wild animals have increasingly been encroaching on populated areas in this east African country, as the urban development has limited their ecosystem. “We need to raise awareness so that we can find a way to mobilize so that we can get the animals into the nature parks,” said Paul Ginaro.

In July, a lion escaped from Nairobi’s national park and spread panic in the capital’s southern suburbs. The park is only seven kilometers from the city center and animals that escape there often end up wandering into this metropolis of 4 million people. In December 2019 a lion killed a man outside the park and in March 2016 another attacked and injured a resident before being killed by rangers.