A car thief probably got the surprise of his life when he grabbed the light truck from a circus. No doubt he thought he had a good one, but he got more than he bargained for: a 5-year old lion, circus star armed with a set of teeth able to recover the last remnant of honesty from the worse stealing bandit.
The German police found the wrecked truck and Caesar safe and sound. It is not known whether the thief was unable to drive or if the noises from the back of the car were more distracting than the usual mobile phone used while driving.
This is what these visitors of the Lion Safari Park in Johannesburg (South Africa) learned while they were driving slowly in this wildlife park to admire some wild animals. But, this lion found how to open their Toyota’s door with its teeth. The driver had only a few seconds to understand that the best reaction was to press the pedal deep and run away.
Lion opens car door
It would never have happened with a large American SUV, of course.
Nathan Myhrvold may not be an exceptional photographer (after all, he is not known and famous for that, but he succeeded anyway), but his photo essay is a good illustrated summary of the atmosphere of an African photo safari.
The question must be asked. Seriously. When you look at the following picture of tourists having total fun in seeing a full grown lion rushing to their car’s hood all teethes out.
But reality is slightly simpler: These tourists do not take the slightest risk. They are merely visitors to the Werribee Open Range Zoo, in Melbourne, Australia. There, a nicely prepared presentation allows to feel the thrill of being an African prey in all security behind a thick glass window (cutting in two halves the car model).
Lions (like many cats) do not like water. Kevin Richardson established such a confidence relationship with these lions that he could convince them to go and swim with him.
There is no limit to true love. Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen truly loves cats: She has got eleven (11!) of them in her South African house.
Nothing really remarquable, except the cats are:
Four cheetahs
Five white lions
Two tigers
…and I don’t count the dogs.
This is love, big lvoe!
Riana tries to help in protecting those endangered species, since 2006 when she adopted her first cheetah, Fiela.
Last but not least, remember that wild animals are still wild animals, even when they are perfectly integrated in a family. In this case, they also have a lot of free space, which must contribute a lot to the overall stability of this adventure.
This is a message that you should have learned from Aesop, if you are a little rat. Unfortunately, some animals can’t read. Here are two examples.
First, a fox found itself in the enclosure of a lion in the Wuppertal zoo (Germany). It left quite quickly after understanding the kind of error it made.
The lion and the fox (Martin Meissner/Associated Press)
The second is even more astonishing since this is simply a mere rodent which decided to go and eat part of the dinner of a leopard of the Santago Rare Leopard Project, in Hertfordshire (UK). The small rat, quite young and inexperienced, but not impressed at all, demonstrated that size is not all. When you got what it takes…
Le léopard et le rat (Copyright (C) Casey Gutteridge)
We all know about the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion that has roared at the beginning of so many movies. But, of course, the short movie sequence had to be shot.
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