Posted on 03/02/2023 6:17:45 AM PST by SJackson
A few years back, visitors at the Washington DC National Zoo got to witness a live lion hunt, only it wasn’t some pre-planned exhibit for season pass holders…
A fawn was walking around Rock Creek Park, which surrounds the zoo, when it decided to be adventurous and check out what was behind one of the many concrete walls.
Through a tragic strike of truly awful luck, the fawn just so happened to find itself in the lion’s den…
No, not some metaphorical bad place to be, the literal lion’s den, complete with two hungry lionesses.
The crowd gathered around to watch a once in a lifetime event take place right before their eyes, and while everyone was cheering for the deer, you have to think everyone knew it didn’t have a shot.
It did actually get away for awhile, although it’s clear the lion wanted a little fun chasing this thing down. Unfortunately for the lions, handlers got them back in their cages before they were able to make the kill. Veterinarians were called to give assistance to the badly injured fawn, but they weren’t able to help it and ended up putting it down so it didn’t have to suffer anymore.
The original videos were split into pieces, part 1 and part 2 are below. [at the site]
A local reporter went to get more information the next day, which is where we learned how this story ended.
Maybe this makes me heartless, but I was rooting for the lions…
Can you imagine how happy you have to be when you see a live animal prancing around your pen after years of raw chickens? Has to be the equivalent of us seeing a filet mignon after a steady diet of fast food.
And that’d be one hell of a feeling…
Also, what kind of enclosures are they using that a baby deer can just prance its way into the pen? I’d imagine if a fawn can get over the wall, so can the lion… and I do not want to see that lion hunt.
Just goes to show, most people who claim to be nature lovers really are the exact opposite. A lion hunting, killing, and eating a deer is nature. Anyone rooting for the deer is not really a nature lover, but more of a sanitized “Disney” version of nature.
I am unmoved. Deer are so prolific, that you can call them large sized jackrabbits, and left to their own devices they will quickly overpopulate and destroy local forest habitat.
When there are too many for the wild, they will invade suburban areas, and devastate local vegetation as well.
Plus, they play host to a lost of nasty diseases, including Zoonoses (transmissible to humans) such as Q fever, chlamydiosis, leptospirosis, campylobacterosis, salmonellosis, cryptosporidiosis, and giardiasis.
Many years ago I was a zookeeper. Due to a mistake another worker made, I found myself in a precarious situation. The guy opened the gates while I was in the lions’ area cleaning up. Two cubs ran out and went past me. The mother came out, and crouched down staring at me while I was between her and her cubs.
On top of that, the gate to the outside was open. Since there weren’t supposed to be any animals in the area, I left it open while I was policing the area.
So, I was in danger of being attacked by the protective mother and also in danger of having three lions on the loose.
I talked to the mother, and continued cleaning the area and ignoring her cubs. I slowly worked my way around the cubs, still cleaning up, to the gate and “calmly” exited and locked the gate.
Then I went to find out who had put me in that situation.
That depends entirely on who you were rooting for.
Did you ever find out who it was?
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