A rhino poacher was reportedly attacked by an elephant and then eaten by a pride of lions in South Africa’s Kruger national park, The Guardian reported. 

The report quoted Police brigadier Leonard Hlathi saying that the police received information that a group of men had gone into the park on April 1 to hunt rhino, “when suddenly an elephant attacked and killed one of them”.

“His accomplices claimed to have carried his body to the road so that passersby could find it in the morning. They then vanished from the park.”

The group of men reportedly left the park and informed the family of the man who contacted park officials. Park rangers tried searching for the man but were unable to do so. Rangers took four days to find his body and saw evidence that lions had eaten it. 

“Indications found at the scene suggested that a pride of lions had devoured the remains leaving only a human skull and a pair of pants,” said Isaac Phaahla, the general manager of communications for the Kruger national park.

Kruger national park has the largest concentration of rhinos on the planet and is home to about 20,000 of the 25,000 rhinos. 

Poaching has been a plague to the continent of Africa and its rhinos and although it has been on a decline, more than 8000 rhinos have been killed in the past decade. The number dropped to 769 for 2018, with poachers targeting the animal for its horn, according to Save the Rhino. In 2015, more than 70% of all rhinos known to be poached in South Africa were poached in the park.