Tourist Strokes a Wild Lion
It was reported on Sunday that a tourist stuck his hand out of a 4×4 vehicle trying to stroke a wild lion.
This incident took place in the Serengeti.
You can watch the video here.
Many times lions will lay next to cars in order to seek shade, in the video you witness a lion laying in the shade created by a 4×4 vehicle a while later you see the tourist sticking his hand out of the window to stroke the lions back, the lion turns around and bares his fangs before roaring which panics the tourists and he screams “close the window”, eventually another passenger slides the glass door shut.
What the tourist doesn’t realize is how fast lions are, and he is lucky that the lion didn’t either bite his arm or pull him straight out the window.
If the lion had injured or killed the tourist even if the tourist was in the wrong, rangers would have to put the lion down which in turn could have serious consequences to the pride, because if the male lion had young cubs, other males would kill the cubs to send the female back into estrus and take over the pride.