As tourists stopped to watch a pride of lions earlier this month in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, one of them tried to open their car door.
The accompanying footage, captured by Nick Shillan, shows the young male lion’s brief but determined effort to unlatch the door handle with its teeth.
The clip was posted to Facebook by Latest Sightings – Kruger on Friday with a statement explaining that tourists should not put themselves in position to allow something like this to happen.
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Some of the comments pointed to the danger of photographing lions at close proximity through open windows.
Shillan, however, told For The Win Outdoors that he had a camera tripod mounted with clamps to his window and it blocked the window’s opening. The video camera was attached to the tripod with a moveable gimbal.
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Shillan, who was with his wife Angela, said they encountered a pride of 13 lions only 20 minutes after driving into the southern portion of the park.
“I was recording the male lions roaring when I noticed that a young male was sniffing my tire,” Shillan said. “So I started to record him. By luck he started to bite the door handle.
“We then spent another 15 minutes with the rest of the pride. I was never in danger. My window was open but the camera was blocking it.”
As viewers can see, a bang to the door caused the startled lion to retreat. It’s likely that the lion was simply curious about the vehicle.
–Image courtesy of Nick Shillan