A surge in demand for big cat body parts on South Africa’s black market is endangering the future of the country’s captive lion population, conservationists have warned.

A series of recent attacks on predator parks, where hand-reared big cats are kept overnight in zoo-like enclosures, has raised fears that the safety of lions held in captivity can no longer be guaranteed.

Six lions died over the weekend when pesticide-laced chicken meat is believed to have been thrown into their enclosure at a wildlife park north of Pretoria over the weekend, the third known mass poisoning in three months.

A keeper at the Mystic Monkeys and Feathers Wildlife Park discovered the mutilated carcasses of four adult lions and two cubs after a raid in the early hours of Saturday.

The heads and some of the paws of the lions had been cut off and removed, usually an indication that the perpetrators behind the attack were intending to sell the parts to criminal gangs feeding a growing demand for black magic.