25 Jun Idiotic Tourist Tries To Pat Wild Lion On The Head, Nearly Loses His Arm

The Animal Kingdom is made up of a myriad of weird and wonderful creatures. Some are disgusting looking (cockroaches, yikes!), others are adorable (clownfish did inspire Nemo, after all), and a select few like lions are downright fearsome. While us humans might be top of the food chain in a lot of respects, there are still some apex predators who have proven time and time again that we should not mess with them.

Despite this, there are countless idiots around the world who think that they can get one up on Mother Nature for the sake of a good YouTube video or selfie. Case in point, this idiot who tried to pat a lion on the head while on a safari in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.

In the viral clip, the man can be seen slowly extending his hand out of the car window to pat the lion on the head. In case you needed further evidence that this was an incredibly idiotic thing to do, male lions can grow up to three meters long and weigh up to 400 pounds.

While animals on safari routes probably get used to vehicles after a while, one thing’s for sure – they certainly don’t expect to get disturbed in their natural environments. It goes against everything that a safari is supposed to be, and because of this, the lion doesn’t react at first.

The shocking clip was posted by Wildlife Sightings. They explained that it’s not uncommon for lions to seek shelter from the sun in the shade of vehicles but this should never be interpreted as a sign that they trust humans.

To find out what happened a few seconds later, check out the footage of the incident below: [[jwplayerwidget||http://content.jwplatform.com/videos/vfZASTif-sKUnNGKf.mp4||vfZASTif]]

“To try to touch [a lion] is incredibly stupid and ignorant of the tourist that filmed the sighting,” they said.

A South African safari spoke to The Sun about the footage and revealed that the lion in could have easily torn off the tourist’s arm, and even pulled him out of the window of the vehicle and tore him to shreds in front of whoever was filming his actions.

“It could also just have easily crashed its way through the open window and torn into those inside. They were lucky to get away with it. They are wild animals,” said Naas Smit, before adding that if the lion had attacked or killed the tourist it would have been euthanized.

Needless to say, the tourist’s actions were widely condemned online.

YouTube user Avi L wrote, “Idiot was lucky the lion didn’t rip his arm off. Hey, fool. That’s not a house cat!”

Una Nina Nine added, “Hope the tourist was fined and expelled.”

Sadly, however, this is not the only incident of a tourist’s stupidity while on a safari to go viral in recent months.

In another horrifying clip taken at West Midlands Safari Park, England, a giraffe sticks its head into a car after tourists offer it food. Once inside, the tourist begins to wind the window up, with devastating consequences for the giraffe.

This is what happened to the giraffe: [[jwplayerwidget||http://content.jwplatform.com/videos/nLXhfU9j-dkXnENEs.mp4||nLXhfU9j]]

Thankfully, the giraffe was unharmed as a result of the incident.

The tourists’ actions were a direct violation of the park’s rules which stated: “Do not allow animals to put their head inside your vehicle. Keep your windows half-shut.”

“To stop feeding, turn your hand, drop the feed, and bring your hand back inside your vehicle.”

While wild animals are easily provoked by tourists on safari, sometimes they can attack for seemingly no reason, and one of the most shocking clips of this happening involves a herd of elephants attacking a jeep which was photographing them from a what seemed like a reasonable distance.

In the footage, the elephants immediately begin walking towards the jeep once they spot it, slowly at first, before charging. One of the first elephants to run stops a few feet away from the jeep, another follows suit, and then a third rams into the vehicle with its horns.

As the third elephant strikes, a man can be heard in the car saying, “easy, easy!” and “hey, HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY! HEY! HEY!”

What happened next will send a shiver down your spine: [[jwplayerwidget||http://content.jwplatform.com/videos/8LFmVwEs-Q0L14jDU.mp4||8LFmVwEs]]

Although it’s not clear what inspired the herd to attack the vehicle, it’s clear that they felt threatened by it in some way.

YouTube user drifttech234 wrote, “Maybe they thought the jeep [was] another big animal in their territory.”

Regardless of the cause of this attack, if there is a lesson to be learned from these safaris gone wrong it’s this: you should always keep a good distance from wild animals, and under no circumstances should you even think about attempting to treat them like pets.

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