Posted on 06/15/2011 3:31:28 PM PDT by smokingfrog
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - An ordinary family trip to the zoo is anything but, as a female lion takes a special liking to a toddler visiting her exhibit.
The 400 pound lioness seemed very curious about the toddler. At one point she even looks like she's trying to eat the boy through the thick glass wall!
The boy's father filmed the entire encounter.
"I was definitely intimidated and a little, you know, it just seems like natural mother instinct to kind of want to pull him out of there, but he seemed to be having fun," said the mother Catherine Higley.
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxatlanta.com ...
Kid snack,
big kittie
Me personally? While interesting, it is unnerving at the same time. The main that went through my mind is the lesson this child is being taught about confrontation with strange large animals. Were it my child (actually my grandchildren, I wouldn’t be thinking it was funny - I’d be explaining to them just how dangerous that animal is).
Maybe it was hungry. What do people expect large predators to do, sing ‘Hakuna Matata’ along with people?
Reminds me of my cat flinging himself repeatedly against the patio door, trying to get at the chipmunk that was cruelly and impassively eating seeds on the other side.
We went to Busch Gardens in Tampa FL when my daughter was about six.
We were in the lion section, inside the glassed-in visitors gallery. There were two or three lions on the other side of the glass, maybe two were maybe thirty feet away, the third was a little farther away, maybe 35 feet.
My daughter, who was standing right next to the glass, knelt down to look at a bug that was crawling on the tile floor of the enclosure. While she was looking at the bug, the farthest lion — a female — decided she looked like she’d be good to eat. That lion closed the distance to the glass in an amount of time that was so short it was incredible. No more than two seconds, maybe one and a half seconds. From a standing start.
The whole thing was perfectly silent, and she stopped with her nose an inch from the glass. She never touched the glass; she went from a full run to a dead stop in the blink of an eye. It was all very graceful, too.
My daughter was completely oblivious to the whole thing. She looked up at the female lion a couple of inches from her face and smiled at me.
That’s a little unsettling. LOL
I agree with you. One time at a rodeo a bull was trying to jump from the arena into the stands. The first row next to the railing was filled with a bunch of little kids, 6 to 10 years. The bull had his head and front legs over the rail and the kids were just sitting there like they were watching a movie. Finally an adult came over and made them move.
Naughty kitty ping
Yes, common sense and precaution seem to be a rare commodity these days.
That was cool.
Smart cat. Look at the way she immediately runs to the adjoining wall to her right to see if she can get around the wall that was initially blocking her.
I’m not so sure, that looked more like curiosity. Could have easily turned into “dinnertime,” of course.
Don’t forget that there are friendly big cats around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kozVBG308Gs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1JONRQXXeE
It really does act like an oversized housecat.
The lion simply wanted to play................ with it’s food.
I was somewhere, maybe the Living Desert Museum, and there was a warning sign, alerting people that if that type of behavior from the animals (large cats) was to occur that they should immediately remove their small children from the area and tell the staff.
IDIOTS
Like the one commenter said, it’s cruel to tease animals so give it the baby already ;-)
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