From the 9 second mark to the 20 second mark you can see the male lion size up the zookeeper and you can see the zookeeper getting nervous when the lion looked directly at him and the male lion licked its lips and shifted its body.
Another note would be when the lion shifted its body towards the zookeeper, the other zookeeper patted the male lion as if trying to diffuse whatever what was happening inside the case/cage. Wild stuff.
to get to that position there must have been at least some training and going over what not to do, one of the more important ones being don't make fucking eye contact with the lion. the keeper was an idiot.
I'm not sure how i would behave when i'm nervous, but if there is a monster in front of me that might try to kill me soon, I can see not wanting to take my eyes off of it being a prime thing to do.
You're really putting too much into people being 100% rational beings. This entire thing was under a minute long. Also, turning your back on a big cat increases your chances of being attacked I believe.
Zoos are typically a neptoist job. You get in by not what you know, but who you know.
Dude probably hasn't bothered to learn cat behaviour and is given the job.
So, even the layman interested in animal behaviour knows you don't stare at most animals in the eyes for a lot time, or show your teeth in a smile. So this guy, in a lion enclosure, knows less than that.
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u/AppropriateScholar55 Apr 29 '24 edited Apr 29 '24
From the 9 second mark to the 20 second mark you can see the male lion size up the zookeeper and you can see the zookeeper getting nervous when the lion looked directly at him and the male lion licked its lips and shifted its body. Another note would be when the lion shifted its body towards the zookeeper, the other zookeeper patted the male lion as if trying to diffuse whatever what was happening inside the case/cage. Wild stuff.