The Kruger National Park in South Africa is famous for the way lions “interact” with cars, but one man had never been able to confirm this from experience – until last month, when it finally happened.
Hannetjie and his family were on a safari in the park, when they came across a lion pride. One very young lion approached the car and started by trying to chew off the side mirror. Then, either out of curiosity or of hunger, it begins pawing the side window, as everyone inside laughs.
This would be a cute, adorable video if you forget for one second that this is a wild, untamed animal using its senses to investigate an object it’s not familiar with. This might seem like playing, but it’s not, make no mistake about it.
The lion doesn’t stop at pawing the window, either. At one point, it’s clearly trying to bite the glass. From what Hannetjie says in the caption to the video posted on the Kruger Sightings YouTube channel, the lion was also trying to bite the tires, which is when he decided they’d had enough interacting with the wildlife.
“There was a sighting of a pride of 5 lions, but, this pride in Kruger is famous for ‘interacting’ with the cars. There was a young male who was especially curious,” Hannetjie explains.
“We were very excited and scared at first, but then we realized that lion was more curious and playful and was just merely investigating a strange object. Most of my 48 years of visiting the park, I have had to use binoculars and a lot of imagination to spot a lion, never ever had an encounter like this!” he adds.
He decided to drive off lest the lion punctured the tires with its sharp teeth – not so much as precaution for their own safety, but for the lion’s.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News