South Africa’s Kruger National Park is huge and includes about five million acres of wild land; within it are some of the world’s most protected animals, such as rhinos, which have now become a principal target for poachers.It is not easy to protect those animals. In South Africa rhino poaching has turned into a serious national crisis, hundreds of rhinos being killed for their horns in some years. The illegal trade is very profitable, but it can also be extremely dangerous to go into the park to hunt them.The danger became painfully obvious when a number of men suspected of poaching entered Kruger National Park on foot. Their objective was to locate a rhino, shoot it and take its horn. However, before they could get near their target, they came across something that they most probably never anticipated.On April 1, 2019, it is reported that five men entered the park illegally; they were said to be carrying guns and were searching for rhinos, since their horns have a very high value on the illegal market.While the group were travelling through the wilderness their plans all at once changed and rather than spotting a rhino they saw an elephant.The survivors of the group say that the elephant attacked them; during the incident one of the suspected poachers was reportedly trampled to death, which left the rest of them in a desperate position.The survivors then reached a decision which would make the situation even more terrifying; they took the man’s body towards a nearby road, apparently intending that someone might eventually find him.However, the wilderness had different intentions.A group of lions passed over the body. The predators seized the opportunity, since the body was basically an unexpected meal, and left only a small amount when the rangers started looking around.The next morning the park rangers began searching for the man who was missing. Though they didn’t find his body they did come across a skull, a pair of pants and some of the equipment which apparently the group had left behind.The investigators were able to reconstruct what had taken place because of the evidence. Four of the surviving suspects were subsequently arrested and charged with poaching and possessing illegal firearms.The park authorities called the event tragic, yet it also acted as a sad reminder of the risks one faces when entering restricted wildlife areas illegally.It wasn’t the first instance of something similar having occurred near Kruger National Park.A situation remarkably similar had already been reported a year before, involving suspected poachers who entered the area while supposedly attempting to hunt rhinos; in that instance, it was thought that the lions had attacked the men as well, and the only thing that was eventually found was the head of one of the suspected poachers together with a rifle.The stories are disturbing, yet they also show exactly how unpredictable the African wilderness can be, since animals which appear harmless from a distance can become very dangerous when people enter their territory, particularly when those people are armed and moving through the bush at night.Rhinos have suffered a very high cost because of the illegal trading of their horns; since 2008 nearly 10,000 of them have been killed in South Africa, even though in recent years the number of rhinos killed has decreased due to conservation measures and improved protection.For rangers speaking, the need to protect these animals involves having to deal with people who are prepared to go into hazardous areas for the sake of money. For everybody else, however, the lesson is far simpler: wildlife areas are not places in which humans have automatic control.An elephant is capable of turning a hunt into a desperate flight within a matter of seconds, and a group of lions can entirely alter the course of what happens next.Therefore the warnings which advise people to stay away from protected areas should be taken seriously, since the animals living there aren’t aware that you’re only visiting and obviously don’t mind what purpose you have for being there.And if you think that a bunch of poachers would never have stood a chance against lions, hold on until you hear about the incident when two lions entered a construction camp in Tsavo, Kenya.