The little boy brought to the lion enclosure at El Paso zoo is a tantalizing thought for this lioness who keeps on enthusiastically tapping away at the reinforced glass that separates the two of them.
Zari, as she is known, is one of four lions who live at the zoo, making it her home since 2010.
Often she can be seen interacting with children. The video was posted onto the internet showing the extraordinary encounter between a big animal and the youngster.
The lioness apparently does this with kids quite a bit; she loves children, but it’s probably a good thing that the glass is very thick!
The child doesn’t appear to be all that bothered by the interaction between himself and the jungle beast.
The lioness is persistent yet the toddler is unperturbed.
At the zoo they tell customers not to feed the animals – something that this little kid would heartily agree with.
Attempting to explain why there are a number of videos of lions ‘playing’ with children, Craig Packer of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota notes that while ‘some of the lions look quite playful in their attempts … sometimes the animals will spend several minutes playing with wildebeest calves or gazelle fawns before finally chomping them.’
He added that ‘predators generally treat calves/fawns/babies differently from adults because they are such easy prey; there’s no real chance of escape, so what’s the hurry?’
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