“Clearing your throat and having a lion think you are taunting it, and having him jump out and bite your head off really isn’t supposed to be in the cards.”
If clearing your throat caused the tigers (not lion) to do that, it would have already happened over the past 60 years the tiger pit has been there in that zoo.
If there is a gorilla in a cage and it says “Do not stick hands in cage”, and you do, then you could get your arm ripped off.
These young men did something the caused a tiger to get really, really pissed off. Like hit in the head with a 9” rock. And likely climbed on top of the barrier or over it.
A tiger ,surging with adrenaline after being hit, can do amazing things.
Young men, drinking vodka, alone in the park, just before dark, throwing rocks at the animals, climbing over the pit wall.....
But... blame it on the zoo for making not making the pit IDIOT PROOF.
You really don’t know that any of these young men did anything at all.