When local Addo resident, Janine Snyman, saw a young male lion with a beer bottle in his mouth, she could not ignore the environmental message this image projected.
"She snapped some incredible shots' said Megan Taplin, marketing and communications manager of SANParks' Frontier Region.
Stopping to view the lion, Snyman and her husband watched the young male get up from where it was lying in the grass and pick up an empty beer bottle its mouth.
The lion then sauntered over to a stone signpost, jumped on top of it and lay down while watching another young male lion approach.
The lion later dropped the beer bottle and walked off in the company of the second lion.
"This is a powerful message to visitors to our national park to take care that they do not litter," said the Park's conservation manager, John Adendorff.
Adendorff said that the situation could have been much worse if the lion had broken the beer bottle and cut his mouth, depriving him of a means of feeding.
"The Park's rules and regulations, including speed limits and bans on disturbing wildlife are in place to protect our wildlife as well as ensure the safety of visitors," Adendorff added.
Adendorff also mentioned that some visitors disregarded Park rules by getting out of their vehicles inside the game area. People who wished to assist by reporting this bad behaviour could phone the manager on duty on 082 471 0267 or the Park's reception on 042 2338619. Park staff could then react to the report while those transgressing were still in the Park.
Learn more about the Code of Conduct in Kruger National Park
