The plague dogs

摘要

Things were looking bad for the lions of the Serengeti. A strange sickness was sweeping through the population, claiming lions of all ages, from young cubs to adults in their prime. Their paws twitched. They seemed disoriented and depressed. Some had seizures, their limbs flailing and their faces twisted into a lopsided sneer. Before the year was out, the mysterious disease had killed a thousand lions-a third of the population in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park-before spreading north across the border into Kenya.