A foolhardy tourist stuck his hand out of a safari jeep window to pet this lion's back while it wasn't looking. Photo / Supplied
A foolhardy tourist stuck his hand out of a safari jeep window to pet this lion's back while it wasn't looking. Photo / Supplied
A safari tourist got the fright of his life when he tried to stroke a lion out the window of a jeep and was met by a terrifying roar.
Shocking footage shows the man petting the big cat's back with the vehicle's window wide open.
The male lion then turns around and lets out an almighty roar prompting the tourists to flinch and slam the window shut before letting out loud sighs of relief, reports Daily Mail.
South African safari ranger Naas Smit said: "Only those who work in the wild know the speed of a lion and it could have torn the arm off the person touching it.
"It would have the power to pull that tourist straight out of that window and kill them instantly in front of their friends. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do.
"It could also just have easily crashed its way through the open window and torn into those inside. They were lucky to get away with it. They are wild animals.
"If the lion had killed this person then game rangers would probably have had to have killed it and if it was the pride male it could have serious consequences.
"I just have to shake my head when I see people behaving like this and they deserve all they get," he said.
The safari-goer looks pleased with himself after stroking the animal - before it turns around and exposes its huge teeth. Photo / Supplied
The terrifying footage comes just one month after a French family narrowly escaped being attacked by cheetahs in a Dutch safari park after getting out of their cars.
Video footage filmed by a witness showed the tourists being chased by the wild cats after trying to take photos with the animals.
Beekse Bergen is a drive-through African wildlife safari park, in the south of the Netherlands, where visitors are under strict instruction not to leave their cars.
The family of five clearly missed the instruction and were seen getting out in the middle of the park where some cheetahs are sunning themselves - twice.
The tourists filming in the car behind them cannot believe their eyes when the group climb out of a French-registered car to take snaps of the predators.
They then drive a little further down the road and get out again, stepping onto a small hill a few dozen feet away from where the cheetahs are resting.
Unsurprisingly, the cheetahs - the world's fastest land animal - gets up and starts to run towards the group, seemingly made up of three adults and two children.
The tourists spot the cheetahs at the last minute and make a panicked dash for the car.
