If there are lions and leopards in Kenya, why don't athletes ever get eaten on their runs?

Filbert Bayi once had to throw rocks at a lion while on a training run

The slow one gets eaten, that's why you never hear about the slow one.

There are mountain lions and bears and wolves in the US. Probably way more large predators than in Kenya, how come college teams aren’t snacks for the animals?

No he didn't.

With all that high altitude training in Utah, Arizona, and Colorado, you'd think that US runners would just be a bunch of snacks.

The only land mammals that consider people prey are polar bears, and the only ones that consider people worth killing on the regular are tigers and polar bears, although I wouldn't be too happy to encounter a mountain lion or a grizzly on a run. I've been very close to lions in the wild, and they ignored me, as they had been doing to people their entire lives.

Yes, he did. Source: I am the lion and the rocks were not Grrrrrreat!

Yes he did

It happens, but rarely. It's more common that wild animals come into the villages. I have two athlete friends that have had zebras come into their villages. They rapidly gather up the children and the men try to corner the animal until game wardens come to take it, as most of the animals are "supposed to be" living on the national reserves.

But here are a few stories from my friends:

Just this past week Reuben Keiro (2:07 marathoner) and his group past by a group of zebras that had gotten loose, and later had to stop training while a lion was being captured next to the road they were training on.

Winfred Yavi told me of having to turn back while training in a forest in Ngong because of a pride of lions resting on the trail in front of them.

And here's a link regarding an athlete that was indeed attacked by a hippo and Dennis Kipkosgei (2:13 marathoner and 46:10 winner of Broad Street Run in Philadelphia) fought with the hippo to save his friend's life. It's a fun story to hear Dennis tell it.

the-star.co.ke

Athlete attacked by hippo tossing him up and down

https://www.the-star.co.ke/authors/ndichuwainaina/

Victim was attacked during evening jog by the river after stadium was turned into market.

Link:www.the-star.co.ke/news/2020-09-29-ath...

You can provide the citation?

You're probably thinking the Samson Kibobwa sleepy lion story that he pulled on his willing accomplices in the running press corp. Never happened though.

The East African people I’ve spoken to, in country, are more afraid of elephants than the big cats. You can startle a cat, but there’s nothing you can do to a group of elephants rampaging out of control.

Why do you think BYU runners are so fast? They outrun Cougars on the trails (and in Provo) all the time.

Mountain lions live in the mountains, mainly. Mountain runners and hikers are constantly disappearing in the mountain wilderness and never found. Obviously the mountain lions are snacking on them.

Not enough meat.

I went to the University of Utah and they had a women’s program but no men’s program. Some say it’s because of scholarship allocation, but really the men’s team got eaten by some cougars on a training run in Little Cottonwood Canyon

Oh yes he did!

They do. It's just that they're never heard from again. So, you shouldn't be surprised that you've never heard of it.

The wild animals live in special areas or zones called....game parks orgame reserves.

The athletes do not train inside the game parks rather in forests or areas with no dangerous animals...

The animals that one may encountered are maybe buffaloes which are more dangerous than even the cats...

There was an incident of a hippo attack some years ago (and yes hippos can run faster than human beings)

All in all Kenya has a plethora of larger dangerous animals but they mostly live in gazetted zones away from where people live.

what are their PR's?

I am not sure a hippo could outrun the fastest human. They are pretty fat