Three lions interrupted a common Ethiopian custom of kidnapping a desired bride and then beating her into submitting to marriage, chasing off the captors and then guarding the victim, according to the Associated Press.
The men fled in terror and the lions remained, guarding the badly beaten girl until police and relatives found her outside of Bita Genet, about 350 miles southwest of Addis Ababa.
Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo of the local police said the lions stood guard until they found her and “then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest.”
“If the lions had not come to her rescue, then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage,” he said.
The locals are calling the intervention a miracle because it is highly abnormal that the lions didn’t attack and eat the girl. But one wildlife expert believes that her cries may have sound like the mewing of a lion cub.
“A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they didn’t eat her,” said Stuart Williams of the rural development ministry.
The youngest of four siblings, the pre-teen was taken to a hospital to have her wounds treated, described as “shocked and terrified.”
Police have four of the men in custody and are looking for the remaining three assaulters.
The United Nations estimates that over 70% of Ethiopian marriages are the result of the abduction and beating method, still widely practiced in the rural areas.
