There’s a reason the lion is called the king of the jungle. This animal is stronger and fiercer than any of the others. In short, you don’t mess with him. Well, one tourist didn’t get the memo.
What he did was so incredibly reckless, it is a wonder that he is still alive. This man literally put his life in danger in the name of doing something stupid. Some people act without thinking, and this is a prime example of those situations.
The man was on a safari tour in South Africa when he looked out the window of the jeep he was riding in. There he saw it: a real life lion! He must have been overwhelmed with excitement, because what he did next was totally idiotic.
The man stuck his hand out of the window to pet the lion. You can imagine how the feline took it. Within moments this empty headed tourist found himself facing a roaring lion.
This would be enough to frighten the life out of anyone. One second, this man was petting the cat’s back, and the next everything was different. He could lose his arm if he wasn’t careful…well, if he were any less careful.
Once the lion let out a roar, the tourist knew that he’d had enough. He flinched and rushed to slam the window shut. Once he had confirmed that he was safely inside the Jeep, he could breathe a sigh of relief. Or several.
Even the park rangers are astonished that nothing worse happened to the man. They don’t need to be told twice not to mess with lions. “Only those who work in the wild know the speed of a lion and it could have torn the arm off the person touching it,” explained Naas Smit, a South African safari ranger.
This lion wouldn’t have had to stop there, either. He was strong enough to do some serious damage. “It could also just have easily crashed its way through the open window and torn into those inside,” Smit continued. “They were lucky to get away with it. They are wild animals.”
This situation could have been much more disastrous, not only for the dumb tourist but for the lion as well. These beasts are technically wild, but they don’t enjoy all the freedoms that wildlife once had. If they pose a threat to the population they may face difficulty.
“If the lion had killed this person then game rangers would probably have had to have killed it and if it was the pride male it could have serious consequences,” Smit shared. This one action could have affected the whole pack in a devastating way.
For people like Smit, this kind of careless behavior is unacceptable. Animals need to be treated with respect; the world is not the human’s garbage bin. “I just have to shake my head when I see people behaving like this and they deserve all they get.”
Many tourists are not as lucky as this man. One woman ignored the safety warnings of her tour guide and other officials, and she ended up paying the ultimate price. This girl was only 22 years old when she was killed by a lion.
She had rolled down the window to take a picture of the cat – against the strong warnings of the group leader. The lion took advantage of the situation and attacked the woman, leaving everyone else on the safari with a blood curdling tale.
Lions are beautiful and majestic, but you should not mess with them. If you ever go on a safari of your own, please keep the windows up! We don’t need any more tragedy in this world.
Watch the terrifying moment in the video below.
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