Camping in the wilderness where there are dangerous animals is always exciting. Camping in Southern Africa is even more exciting, simply because of all the large predators that live there. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes these predators will invade a camp out of curiosity, and that's just what happens in this video.
Kglagadi Transfrontier Park in Botswana is where this footage was shot. A man and his brother-in-law were doing some film work in the park when they were scared out of camp by a young male lion. Thinking the lion would leave if they gave it space and returned later, they instead come back to find the big cat making himself at home.
They start filming as the lion comes out of the tent with one man's pillow. It takes it back into the brush and starts chewing on it. The men can only watch and wait as the lion returns to the tent again and again, ignoring the vehicle's engine and even its horn. At one point the lion runs off with a camp chair, seemingly just because it can. When daylight finally arrives, the men assess the damage to the things the lion stole.
As terrifying as this was, we should note this was a rare occurrence. Lions don't usually raid camps, and they also usually don't consider humans prey items unless they are very old, or their teeth are injured in a way that prevents them catching normal prey. In this case, it seems the lion was a young male, one that doesn't know any better about the dangers of humans.
It seems he's just one very curious cat! We're glad to see this situation had a happy ending in which the only thing hurt was a few pillows and the side wall of a tent. Big cats that attack humans are often put down, so this was an ideal scenario for both parties involved. We're just glad they captured the entire incident on video, because we doubt anyone would have believed them otherwise!
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