A man who visited a safari in the UK got up close with an animal you wouldn’t expect.
TikTok user @the_3_amigos posted a clip on the platform showing a moment he had at Knowsley Safari Park in Prescot, about a 30-minute drive from Liverpool. He shared an eight-second video sitting in a car when none other than a lion walked past.
In fact, two lions strolled past either side of the parked up car on the cloudy, wet day. Some people who saw the video were amazed to see lions in a UK safari park.
A male and female lion calmly walked past the car and other vehicles in front. The TikTok user captioned his post: “Up close with the lions.”
It has garnered 2.3 million views, 116,000 likes and nearly 600 comments at the time of writing. One confused person asked: “Lions in the UK?”
Another added: “Imagine you are there with your kids and they are excited to see the lions and open the door.”
A third added: “Nah I’d have to put window down and try my luck of touching it.” One user recalled: “I remember when my mums car made some loud sound whenever she drove off and then the lions started following the car. I was so scared.”
A fourth commenter joked about the weather: “Even the lions look mad at being here in this weather.” Someone who has been to Knowsley Safari Park before and is a fan of lions said: “Been there loads over the years I’ve never been lucky enough to have the lions strolling past.”
Others were concerned about lions being outside in the UK with comments including, “this is so wrong the lions should not be in this climate” and “why is the UK taking lions like they have sun.” WWF describes African lions as “highly adaptable big cats” that can be found in a wide variety of habitats, including semi-arid desert areas and even very dry habitats such as the Kalahari desert.
Knowsley Safari Park offers a five-mile safari drive, the longest in the UK, across 550 acres. It gives visitors the chance to see animals from all over the world from Bactrian camels to white rhinos and African lions. The current African lion population is estimated to be as small as 23,000 and at Knowsley Safari Park you can get up close and personal with these predators from your own car.
African lions are currently listed as ‘vulnerable’ so without changes to their circumstances, they are likely to become endangered, according to the safari. These animals are affected by habitat loss and fragmentation and face the threat of illegal wildlife trade and human wildlife conflict, as per WWF.
The number of African lions has plummeted by over 40 per cent in the last three generations, as a result of loss of living space and conflict with people. Knowsley Safari Park has shared some fun facts about these carnivorous predators, including that it is the lioness, along with her pride, that will do the majority of hunting.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
