I recently posted a little Twitter game that asked people to identify the lie among three claims I had made about myself. One of the claims was that I had been chased by a lioness. That one happened to be true and confused quite a bunch of people, so I promised I will share the full story on my blog (140 characters just isn’t enough for such a tale of horror!).
About a decade ago, when I broke loose from my military shackles and finally became a civilian, I set up a small business providing cat behavior counselling. I also ran a major cat advice website in Hebrew at the time, and was interviewed in the local media by several newspapers, radio stations and TV shows.
One day, the local children’s channel contacted me with an offer to do a show about cat behavior issues. The idea was for them to film me visiting a family where the kids would complain about the cats scratching the furniture and I would help them with the issue.
To make the show even more interesting for the children’s channel, they suggested that we head out to the local zoo, known in Israel as “The Safari“. Located near Tel Aviv, it’s a fairly large zoo, with several open space enclosures, where animals are free to roam. They have a pretty large lion enclosure there too, where you can drive in with your car, and look at the uncaged lions.
Now, despite what some people here think, these lions are not sedated. Lions just happen to lie down most of the day, which makes them appear relaxed. However, the zookeeper who gave us the tour assured us that these lions were as predatory as their wild counterparts. They are in fact surrounded by a thin electric fence, keeping them from approaching the cars. There are guards in the enclosure, situated inside jeeps in high places, ready with their dart guns, just in case, being as there is always an Israeli mother out there who needs to let her kid pee in the bushes right in the lions enclosure…
In fact, the headkeeper told us, the zookeepers themselves never park the jeeps inside the electric fence perimeter, and watch from outside only, since the lions do attack the jeeps, given the opportunity, and have caused their share of flat tires… so, when the keepers have to, such as when bringing the lions into their cages at night time, they drive into the enclosure but try to keep driving at all times, and not stand still.
Having visited the cages first, where they had a couple of caged lions just for us to look at up close and shoot, I was pretty impressed with the size and ferocity of these animals. Trust me, standing right next to a fully grown adult lion who is standing on its two hind legs and playing with the big furry mic, you get a good idea of just how big these animals really are. Noticing just how nervous the guards were while we were making the very short walk from the jeep into the cages area, with the other lions very far away, added to the excitement.
Finally, we were taken into the large perimeter, to shoot the lions up close. I was supposed to talk and show the kids how these big felines had been sctacthing the trees in the enclosure, and how some of these trees had to be protected with wire. To get some good shots, the director asked the zookeepers to get close and park for “just a couple of minutes”…
So, there we are, with me sitting in the back of the jeep, which had one door at the back, talking to the camera, when suddenly, the zookeeper solemnly announces that we have to get going, as two of the lionesses are becoming too interested in our presence. Indeed, I look out the window in the back door, and these massive big cats are beginning to make their way towards us.
As the jeep begins to move away, one lioness gives up, but the other figures out this is a great game and begins to chase us. As luck would have it, the door at the jeep was not properly secured and as the vehicle goes over the bumpy terrain, the door gets jerked open.
I’ll never forget that view…. A big lioness, chasing us at about 3 meters or 10 feet behind, with nothing between me and her. It only took seconds, but they did seem awfully long, before I managed to grab the door and slam it shut…
We made it to safety, no humans or wheels damaged and I got a nice tale out of it. I did have recurring nightmares for years after that though. Amazing, really, how primordial the image was and how scary.
So, there you have it – this is how I was chase by a lioness pretty much in the middle of Tel Aviv!
on Jul 7th, 2009 at 7:10 am
That quiz absolutely stomped me! Chased by a lioness just seemed completely off.
on Jul 13th, 2009 at 4:19 am
it’s sad it didn’t eat you