IIRC, this incident took place on Taiwan and involved a Chinese man who was quoting passages from the Book of Daniel as he approached the lions. The man survived several blows and bites from the lion, who seemed more annoyed and perplexed than anything else by the man's appearance in the enclosure. Probably saved by the fact that the male lion does not routinely do the killing for the pride.
OTOH, the man in Kiev seems to have been dispatched in a pretty quick and professional manner as befits being taken down by a lioness.
Yeah, the lion and lioness in that picture look distressed. That's not a "hunting look", nor an "I am in command" look. That's the look that people get when they find a squirrel or a fox or a small deer in the house. It's like: Oh crap, what's THAT doing here?
Except that usually the squirrel or fox or deer is trying to get OUT.
Here, the guy is walking right up to them saying something.
If you're a lion, you're thinking "What the HELL...?"
And you know who feeds you etc., and they're always outside the cage. "What's this one doing IN THE CAGE and howling at us?"
So, to go back to our analogy, those lions look like a couple that finds a squirrel or fox in the house, and the squirrel or fox keeps wanting to walk right up to them. Probably rabid. Very bad.
So, the lioness hides behind the lion (who attacks lions in the wild? Just other male lions. So it's the male's job to do that sort of fighting), looking concerned. And the lion stands there and bats at the guy and makes a lot of noise, like saying "Guys, Guys! There's a nut in here! HELLLOOOOO! Can we get some help over here, please?"
> Chinese man who was quoting passages from the Book of Daniel as he approached the lions
Yup. He claimed he wanted to save the lions souls. Rather an odd notion, that. There are *all* kinds of problems with that, not least of which is that a lions grasp of English or Chinese is likely to be a bit limited, and thus it's ability to convert is likely also a bit limited.
At best, the lion is probably thinking something like "How does this 'Christ' monkey of which you speak relate to Bast?"
> the man in Kiev seems to have been dispatched in a pretty quick and professional manner as befits being taken down by a lioness.
Yup. Severed the artery in the neck... a standard, professional cat-kill. Bite 'em somewhere soft and important and stand back while they bleed to death.