JUSTICE IS SERVED: Rhino Poacher Trampled by Elephant, then Eaten by Lions!

The New York Times had the following to say about the details:

A man suspected of being a rhino poacher was killed last week by an elephant and his remains devoured by a pride of lions at a South African park, officials said.

Rangers at Kruger National Park and other searchers found only a human skull and a pair of pants, the park said in a statement on Friday.

Four of the dead man’s accomplices were arrested, the authorities said.

The man’s accomplices told his relatives that they had been in the park to poach rhinos on Tuesday night when he was killed by an elephant, local officials said.

A search party, including rangers on foot and members of the park’s air wing, searched the area that was described by the family but could not find the body because light was fading, the statement said. Searchers found the remains on Thursday morning.

The managing executive of the park, Glenn Phillips, offered his condolences to the family of the dead man, who was not identified.

“Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise,” he said in the statement. “It holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that.”

Mr. Phillips said it was sad to see the daughters of the man “mourning the loss of their father, and worse still, only being able to recover very little of his remains.”

Kruger National Park advertises itself as offering “an African safari adventure of a lifetime.” At nearly two million hectares, it is the largest national reserve in South Africa, according to its website, which added that it was home to animals such as lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, leopards and African buffaloes.

Last July, rangers and police officers said that as many as three men suspected of being rhino poachers had been killed by lions at a South African game preserve.

The Washington Post also commented on the poacher's death and the problem of rhino poaching in South Africa:

A rhinoceros poacher was stomped to death by an elephant and eaten by lions in a South Africa wildlife preserve, and rangers found just his skull and trousers, authorities said.

The man and two others were hunting illegally at Kruger National Park last week when the elephant surprised them, park spokesman Isaac Phaahla said. The hunter’s companions dragged his body to a spot near a road and told the man’s family what happened. It took two days for rangers to find his remains.

South Africans weighed in on social media, with many celebrating the poacher’s death, calling it justice or applauding the animals for “restoring law and order in the jungle.” But others blamed the economic desperation that leads people to become poachers, and the international criminal syndicates they work for.

Julian Rademeyer, a project leader for TRAFFIC, which monitors the international trade in wildlife, said effective measures are needed to attack the global rings that deal in rhino horn and elephant ivory.

“The rage and anger of many people at the rampant poaching that is endangering rhinos and elephants is understandable. But the joy and gloating over the death of a poacher is crass and misguided,” Rademeyer said. “Killing poachers will not stop poaching. Poachers are just the foot soldiers of international criminal syndicates.”

The world’s rhinos are in danger of being hunted to extinction. They are prized for their horns, which are ground up and used in traditional Chinese medicine as a supposed cure for a variety of ailments.

South Africa, which has about 80% of the world’s remaining rhinos, has seen aggressive poaching of the animals in recent years. Last year 769 rhinos were killed illegally , down from more than 1,000 annually since 2013, according to Save the Rhino.