WATCH: Tourist almost gets mauled by lion while on game drive

THE 23-second clip shows a woman touching the body of a lion as it sits close by, unaware of the vehicle. Screenshot of Maasai Sightings YouTube video

THE 23-second clip shows a woman touching the body of a lion as it sits close by, unaware of the vehicle. Screenshot of Maasai Sightings YouTube video

Published Nov 2, 2021

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The first rule of safari etiquette is to never disturb the animals. Tourists on a Serengeti safari almost lost their lives when one of the passengers got into a close encounter with a lion.

The 23-second clip shows a lady touching the body of a lion as it sits close by, unaware of the vehicle.

The lion gets curious when the tourists start to whisper, which prompts him to roar.

Someone in the van tells the tourists to “close your window” while the lion continues to roar. There were plenty of shuffles in the video. Thankfully, no one got injured.

According to Maasai Sightings, the channel that published the video, the tourist touched the male lion and almost got her face ripped off.

“This is a very dumb thing to do and you can easily get yourself killed or banned from a national park by doing this,” they warned in the bio (sic).

While it is unclear when the video was recorded, it offers a great lesson to safari travellers.

The animals have become accustomed to game-viewing vehicles, and they do not see them as a threat. However, once you start to threaten it or provoke it, you are in trouble.

In September, IOL Travel reported that some tourists who parked at Paul Kruger gate at Kruger National Park decided to be brave and step out of their car to snap close up shots of a group of cute elephants.

A few also wanted to capture pictures of the Paul Kruger statue. Some stayed close to their cars while some ventured into the grass.

In a viral video on Twitter, the tourists, who were gleefully capturing content and probably so thrilled they were breaking the safari rules, were almost attacked by the elephants as they were running in the veld.

The video shows a vehicle belonging to a game reserve, but it’s unclear if tourists were travelling in that vehicle.