Golf Balls and Wildlife Don't Mix!

If you are searching for missing golf balls in the undergrowth beware! Who knows what might be lurking there!

Open wide

You don't have to be in the wilderness to come face to face with a disgruntled lioness. At the Knowlsey Safari Park in Merseyside , Great Britain , staff noticed one of their lionesses was in agony - the reason? Golf balls. The five-year-old named Whit by the rangers had a golf ball speared on one of her fangs.

Golf balls on safari

�She probably wasn't in that much pain, but she was extremely confused and frightened,� the Park Manager told the press. Golf balls are after all the last thing you'd expect to find in a safari park. It was thought a visitor left the golf ball behind either carelessly or on purpose. Alien objects like golf balls are incredibly dangerous to wild animals and it's important that visitors to safari parks do not feed the animals and clear up after themselves.

Jaws of danger

Not only was the golf ball of danger to the lioness but the safari park rangers had to risk their own safety by delving into the jaws of danger to retrieve the golf ball. The lioness was sedated, but it was still a dangerous job. �The ball was speared right up as far as the gum and wasn't coming off,� the Ranger said. �Her teeth aren't razor sharp, so it must have taken a lot of pressure to spear it like that. We had to sedate her with a tranquiliser gun and pull the ball off, which took some doing and was a real white-knuckle job.�

Reptiles in the rough

A more common wildlife hazard is alligators and crocodiles. The Lost City golf course in Africa is a surreal course featuring a huge pit populated by a dozen crocodiles. Not surprisingly, not many golfers try to fish out any wayward golf balls from the lake.

Bitten by a Croc

Searching for lost golf balls can sometimes be a hazard. In Malaysia a golfer was attacked by a crocodile when he was playing at Malaysia 's A Famosa Resort. The player needed 38 stitches after it grabbed his leg while he was looking for missing golf balls at the seventh hole. He thought the croc was a piece of wood and stood on it, when it bit him. It tried to drag the golfer into a pond but he hit the croc on the head and escaped. The golfer has not hit a golf ball since.

Danger balls

Alligators, crows, dogs and even cows have been known to munch on golf balls. But humans can be just as damaging to wildlife with their golf balls. The Golfers Handbook reports numerous incidents where animals and fish have been killed by wayward golf balls � including an 11-year old schoolboy in Scotland who killed the first grouse of the season with his tee shot on a local course.

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