Still from video of lion charging glass.Photo: YouTube/Tu Bui Anh
The prey, standing upright, is a mere toddler. He’s looking in the wrong direction. He’s not looking at the powerful predator behind him: a large, commanding, predacious cat, tawny coat blending with tawny grasses, his amber gaze fixed with laser intensity on the youngster standing on a rock just a couple of dozen meters away. The time is three million years BCE. The child belongs to the species Australopithecus afarensis, ancestor to Homo sapiens (us: humanity). The cat could be identified by most people of today as a direct ancestor of the African lion, but we, our species, had yet to evolve.[teaserbreak]
In classic cat fashion, the predator, muscles bulging, stealthily approaches the helpless, unsuspecting child, who has four seconds to live. Speed of movement accelerates until the lion explosively charges, grabbing his prey, and…
I don’t have to spell it out. A typical example of predator and prey, the balance of nature acted out on nature’s stage—not cruel, but indifferent. Each species has its need in an endlessly unfolding spectacle of various forces of death and survival, luck and cognition, all interacting.
Recently, the drama occurred again, but with a modern African lion and a larger child (still a toddler, but a contemporary human being). This child was also distracted and didn’t see the approaching menace. Again, there was the kill-charge of the lion: a manifestation of instincts born at the dawn of life on Earth, moving slowly at first, and then, from mere meters away, the explosively powerful final charge. He rammed straight into an invisible wall of thick glass, briefly pressed like a character in a cartoon. The child finally noticed—and an onlooker laughed. All of it happened not on a primal African veldt, but in Japan, at Chiba Zoological Park. And, it was caught on video.
The lion was responding to a primal hunting instinct: acting as nature intended. His attack was about the only thing remotely “natural” in the entire scenario.
And so, again, a zoo—on a video gone viral—shows us the sheer absurdity of the claim that zoos have a valid function in teaching us about wild animals. The noble lion, one of Earth’s most regal creatures, is reduced to mere entertainment: a cartoon character. SPLAT. His ancient instincts are thwarted; useless; a source of frustration.
There was nothing “playful” (as some social media claimed) in the lion’s attempt. Nor was there any accurate portrayal of what the African lion and its environment are really like. We don’t know if the lion was injured. We don’t know if the glass will always resist shattering. However, those of us who care know that lions are not meant to live as confined novelties for our amusement.
We should learn about lions while lions still roam the wild plains of Africa. It’s a testimony to ancient times and natural processes. But, we will not do so if where we see them is behind glass, behind bars, enclosed—helplessly imprisoned for “entertainment.”
Keep wildlife in the wild,
Barry