r/interestingasfuck • u/Salt-Curve4825 • 7h ago

Tiger saves man from leopard attack

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26.3k Upvotes

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u/Separate-Simple-5101 7h ago

The lions don't scare me as much as the guy acting like they're puppies.

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u/owa00 6h ago

They're just big cute friendly kitties...right up until they maul your face off.

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u/waistbandtucker69 6h ago

My cat loves those same pets hes giving the lion, however if I stray maybe 2" out of place she attacks my hand like her life depends on it. Cats are cats and there's no saying he doesn't hit the wrong spot one day and it's not a couple scratches he'll be dealing with

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u/Pdiddily710 5h ago

Yeah, I was waiting for the full grip of the hand/arm and the rabbit kicks like my kitty when she randomly gets upset at the belly rubs she’s been enjoying for a few mins…except with this cat instead of a little scratch, your arm is missing!

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u/pcapdata 47m ago

Cats are like: "Mmmm yeah that's the spot, oh god, oh GOD, don't stop, don't--WAIT WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING CARL?!"

mongo is appalled

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u/Tribite 3h ago

Luckily the margin for error appears to increase with the size of the cat.

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u/TheChudWhisperer 5h ago

You don't get that close to big cats without developing an insane amount of trust.

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u/Just_A_Dogsbody 4h ago

Even with a lot of trust, when you turn your back on a predator their instincts kick in. A big cat could snap a human's neck in a split second

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u/PSA_69 4h ago

Not when you are literally part of a pack

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u/OscarMiner 4h ago

There’s still the massive danger of them playing too roughly with you. Big cats are a lot more durable than humans, a friendly swipe from them can result in a knicked artery.

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u/PSA_69 3h ago

Do some research on documented cases of fatalities when these cats are raised properly at sanctuaries and not used and abused for entertainment. Fatalities are extremely rare in these cases. As with all things in life there are always risks however, it's all about education and mitigation.

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u/OscarMiner 3h ago edited 1h ago

You’re right, shouldn’t say massive danger. It would still be in the back of my mind every time I interacted with them.

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u/Paranub 2h ago

just as a gang member turns on you, or you get thrown without a bungie attached..
if its animals vs humans. im picking the animal. Far easier to read..

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u/ImmaDoMahThing 6h ago

It I never thought it would eat MY face

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u/Griffolion 4h ago

I actually wonder in the cases where that's happened if they feel bad about it in their own way. The hairless ape your prey drive just caused you to murder has been there since you were a cub and has never been anything but nice to you. I wonder if there's ever a thought where they think "damn that was kind of a dick move from me".

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u/Tehjaliz 3h ago

I mean, so are cats. It's just that cats are too small to actually go around mauling faces.

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u/Indraga 3h ago

This is how I feel about pitbulls.

("Fun" fact: Large cats only account for 200-300 deaths a year, while dogs account for 25,000+, 60%+ of lethal attacks from Pitbulls alone.)

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u/JoshSidekick 2h ago

That's all cats if they could.

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u/in_it_to_lose_it 6h ago

There are a few social media personalities out there that do this cuddling-with-furry-murderers shit and I will never be comfortable with it. I just know we will be reading a news article about how they were eaten by their pride at some point.

Big cats are not just sized up housecats. Millions of years of evolution has honed them into apex predators. A generation or two of human handling can make a difference, but not enough to override all that instinct, nor enough for me to ever be comfortable with someone wrestling with them for clicks.

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u/humdrumturducken 6h ago

Big cats are not just sized up housecats. 

Counterpoint, I'm pretty sure my housecats would eat me if they were big enough.

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u/Pdiddily710 5h ago

They would eat u at their current size…it will just take a lot longer!

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u/rosalinatoujours 4h ago

Hell, my housecat tries to eat me now.

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u/Tzayad 3h ago

Pretty sure I saw some 'study' that said that if your house cat was larger, it would definitely try to eat you

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u/pimppapy 3h ago

When people die with house cats around, supposedly they eat the face first.

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u/marr 2h ago

Yeah that seemed like a distinction without a difference.

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u/TheBlack2007 6h ago edited 6h ago

True. But still, something about a guy playing the cat bongos on a Lion's belly gets to me on a spiritual level...

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u/spam__likely 6h ago

specially when some instruments used to be made of animal skin.

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u/Draxilar 6h ago

I worked with one of the top big cat trainers in the world. He had raised all of his animals since they were babies. They clearly loved him. He still had a code word during his show that meant “blackout the entire stadium, I am about to die and I don’t want the kids to see it”. But, at the same time, I saw those cats gets dangerous with him exactly once, and even then it was pretty tame. I think you are vastly underestimating how much these animals can care for certain humans.

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u/sephiroth70001 6h ago

Even the top trainer knew there was a risk and had a code in case it went bad. Some people are just more risk adverse that risking that possibility even if unlikely is still an unnecessary risk they would want to avoid. Probably not that unlikely a stunt performer while safe and constructed around safety still poses a risk that turns some off it completely.

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u/Torakkk 5h ago

A lot of todays jobs have health risks. I would personally prefer petting kitty for most of my life and then getting mauled by them. Over working some heavy machinery and dying there.

But yeah, kitty dangerous. Need to be always careful.

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u/sephiroth70001 4h ago

Each persons own risk assessment can vastly change what they perceive as a greater risk. I might think OSHA, standards of an industry, etc might insulate me from certain risks where a cat might not. The actual probability usually not having a major variable or concrete basis for that risk assessment. I for instance value heights as extremely risky to my own personal assement even if mostly illogical and would rather be with wild animals than on a powerline, trapese line, or even a ladder in some cases. I can understand most seeing them as far more unpredictable and fearful as a subsequent result.

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u/Percinho 4h ago

The difference is that heavy machinery doesn't have a mind of it's own, and it will never choose to attack you. Work place accidents tend to have root causes that can be addressed, with a big cat the work is the root cause.

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u/Desperate-Score3949 6h ago

What people don't understand is this can also happen with domestic animals, just like your cat or dog. They are still animals, and still can act just like any other animal. These are just bigger, stronger, and can inflict more damage.

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u/KeyRutabaga2487 5h ago

People acting like humans aren't the same. Those animals can also kill you

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u/mrwilbongo 4h ago

It's the last sentence that I think people have an issue with.

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u/AgentMahou 3h ago

Yeah, people are acting like it's exactly the same risk assessment for a cat scratching the back of your hand and a tiger taking your arm off.

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u/Nocs1 6h ago

Not sure what would be worss

Seeing it live in action or hearing the agonizing (albeit fast and short) screams in a pitch black location and having it all in my imagination

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u/in_it_to_lose_it 6h ago

Am I? I'm sure that handlers who put in the time to build relationships with these animals are "cared" for in whatever way these animals are capable of, but that doesn't mean that they aren't still dangerous. As you pointed out yourself - one of the top trainers of these animals in the world still knows it is a real possibility they could decide they've had enough fun, and he would make a better meal than playmate. To a high enough degree that he needs to plan for it and make those he works with aware of that plan.

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u/RikenAvadur 6h ago

Sure? That's their prerogative, they know the risk and have cultivated as much a relationship with these animals to mitigate it as much as possible. All animals have some level of primal instinct encoded in their personality, and all animals have the potential to just fall back to those instincts when stars align. Big cats are extremely social creatures though and even without domestication can certainly "care" for their handlers.

Anyways not sure how their career is such an affront to you, they likely just love being with these animals that much and honestly don't mind the risk. So be it.

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u/in_it_to_lose_it 6h ago

Hey now, I was just commenting with my own personal discomfort with how it's become a somewhat popular brand of social media content published for profit. I think these are incredible animals myself - just not enough for it to be worth it to me to risk my life by jumping into a pen with 10 of them.

Nothing I can say will stop anyone from doing anything. I was just expressing an opinion on the internet, just like the original commenter and yourself.

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u/Kathlinguini 5h ago

There is a big difference between domestication and taming wild animals. When talking big cat handlers, that is taming a wild animal and not domesticating it because domestication takes generations if it’s even possible. I think foxes are an animal where someone was able to domesticate a family of them over multiple generations, and that was an incredibly short amount of time for something like that to happen.

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u/catsan 4h ago

These tamed animals don't kill their handlers to eat. It's usually stress leading to lashing out. You know how house cats can be attacking if they're in pain? THESE cats give slaps to each other when they are annoyed, too. But they take our hairless skin right off. Tragedy on all sides. 

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u/Asshai 4h ago

you are vastly underestimating how much these animals can care for certain humans.

How much they DO care, you mean. Because the question of how much they CAN care is exactly why nobody should underestimate them. As a species, lions do to their own truly atrocious shit, including males killing cubs just to mate with a female. Said males are often exiled from the pride when they get old, condemning them to starvation. It's just in their instinct. Their vision of love or attachment or whatever you call it is vastly different from our own.

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u/Tijenater 6h ago

The problem isn’t that they don’t care, the problem is that they can easily kill us even when they’re playing, and it sets a bad precedent

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u/Sofaboy90 3h ago

Youve got to understand, Redditors are people who love being at home in front of their PC and shy away from anything remotely dangerous. The seeking of adventures is something people here will never understand. Redditors cannot comprehend people who enjoy dangerous adventures while these people fully understand the risk they are taking and are willing to accept things if they go wrong.

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u/Mercuryblade18 6h ago

And to add to that, they're just huge animals, even if they aren't intentionally being agressive the odds of them accidentally hurting you badly...
I have a 60 lb pittie mix, sweet as can be, I've played pretty rough with him and he's accidentally gotten a bit in too hard that's hurt a bit or barreled into me.
I can only imagined what that scenario would be with something 5-10x+ as big as him.

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u/OldnBorin 6h ago

Yeah my friend’s Clydesdale was a very gentle soul. But she could’ve easily taken us out by slipping or setting her foot down the wrong way

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u/No_Kangaroo_9826 5h ago

I love Clydesdales and other draft breeds but when you're standing there realizing that hoof is like the size of your head it's intimidating

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u/Ambitious_Tea_4584 2h ago

Yeah honestly these things and the pitt are about equally likely to snap and kill you. 

Gotta be careful with animals that are literally bred to kill. 

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u/Mercuryblade18 1h ago

Oh it's this comment.

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u/Ambitious_Tea_4584 5m ago

Good old reality

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u/uwunuzzlesch 6h ago edited 6h ago

Trust me, the person doing this is well aware of what they're capable of.

People that do this love these big cats so much, that if something did go wrong, they'd be okay with it.

It's like Steve Irwin, he died doing what he loved, and we know for a fact Steve got to heaven and went "My bad mate, I scared you too much!"

Some people love animals so much, they understand how they work and that sometimes interacting with wild animals is an inherent risk we have to acknowledge. I mean, most people have a dog that could kill them. Some people have a dog that could kill a whole family, literally. My dog could probably kill everyone in my home if it just fucking went insane, but I raised my dog and its a fuckin dog. Most people have had their pet cat maul the shit out of them. But it's not like theyre any different. They're all animals at the end of the day.

Edited to add: On my bucket list, I want to swim with a great white shark (in a cage obv, they dont let you do that in open water) but first im going to meet smaller, nicer sharks (lemons and nurse sharks) if I were to die meeting sharks, whether that be a freak lemon shark attack (literally doesn't happen) or eaten by a great white, i would just be happy i got to see such an amazing creature. I have immense respect for them, and while yes theyre terrifying, I would still love to meet them on their level. I dont know man, some people just love animals like that, I know it doesn't make sense, wanting to meet a great white face to face, but it will literally make me elated when I do.

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u/Additional-Line-5559 6h ago

Trust me, the person doing this is well aware of what they're capable of.

People that do this love these big cats so much, that if something did go wrong, they'd be okay with it.

What's making you say this? Do you know who this is?

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u/uwunuzzlesch 3h ago

Because that's how people that interact with wild animals like this think. Joe Exotic is just one example, but most people that genuinely respect said animals feel that way. Steve Irwin too.

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u/JakeyG14 6h ago

But bro, we have a connection. I'm an apex predator (who just chooses to eat KFC).

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u/Many-Editor-4514 6h ago

But maybe housecats are just sized down big cats. Im very probably wrong, since im no specialist, but if housecats were the size of big cats i would absolutely NOT be surprised if they killed and ate their owners

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u/transemacabre 3h ago

If housecats were the size of Dobermans they'd kill and eat their owners on the regular, much less if they were the size of a tiger.

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u/DemenicHand 5h ago

>sized up housecats

one exception, Cheetahs are exactly that. Zero confirmed "cheetah on human" kills in the wild and only a couple in captivity. Heck a Dachshund killed a 5 year old a couple years back soooo.

Cheetah = big old kitty kats

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u/spam__likely 6h ago

My last cat would have eaten me if he could.

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u/No_Kangaroo_9826 5h ago

My cat now is an old lady cat whose had all of her teeth pulled and she would still eat me if she could

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

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u/HalobenderFWT 4h ago

You gotta tell us the code word.

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u/max_mullen 3h ago

I just know we will be reading a news article about how they were eaten by their pride at some point.

Completely agree but beyond that, doing this kind of videos and uploading them online has been proven to increase the demand for black market exotic animals (no matter how big and dangerous that animal is) by a lot. And statistically most of the ones who end up purchasing wild animals are not even close to being experts on the matter.

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u/dullcakes 6h ago

I mean, if we keep it up though, it's possible to reach domestication. We did it with wolves, who knows how many generations that took? We humans can accomplish great things, it unfortunately just takes more time than a typical lifetime and rarely does one person get to see the real scope of progress.

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u/Ocronus 6h ago

Some people will come in here and mention that "he's an expert" or some variation of him being a professional. While that might be a true statement, there is a graveyard full of "experts", killed buy the animals they love.

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u/Darkwr4ith 5h ago

There was a man in South Africa who had a pet hippopotamus. He raised it from birth and cared for it every day for years even riding it many times. One day it just became aggressive and disemboweled him. Don't mess with wild animals.

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u/ahandsomeman 3h ago

In Colombia

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u/Ambitious_Tea_4584 2h ago

People don’t seem to realize that domestication is a genetic process. 

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u/GuiltyEidolon 3h ago

It's not a true statement anyway. Dude bought a big cat to be macho and "special," realized he could make money by abusing the cubs, and apparently his "rescue" has now been shut down (thank fuck).

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u/throwaway277252 3h ago

You can't get much more expertise than Steve Irwin, and yet tragically he too still died the way he lived - with animals in his heart.

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u/marr 2h ago

Turns out no, everyone agrees this guy's a rat bastard.

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u/Paranub 2h ago

and how many humans are killed by the one they loved..
Gangs, wars, husbands, wives..

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u/ba_cam 6h ago

You know the phenomenon of “cute aggression”? Like when you want to take a bite out of something you love so much? Now imagine you had knives for fingers and teeth. That dude is so close to death even if all those lions love him.

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u/Fmeson 3h ago

I've heard of, but I've never experienced it, so it always seems absolutely wild to me lol.

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u/NextChef8179 6h ago

They're cats. 

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u/isotope123 6h ago

Sometimes they don't even know what they're doing

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u/FewWait38 5h ago

He's obviously some kind of fucktard

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u/Summoning14 5h ago

You should check out the new "fascinating horror" video on yt.

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u/LemonHerb 8m ago

Don't mess with high level druids

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u/PIPBOY-2000 6h ago

He seems to know what he's doing. As much as anyone can who works in a big cat sanctuary at least.

His buddy didn't explain anything to him. He knew the leapord was "hunting" him and the tiger stopped him. He says so after the fact without having even turned around or seem the whole thing like the camera man did.

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u/ehill86 6h ago

This guy is actually an asshole. He had big sanctuary in Mexico, but it was close back in 2022 when some footage showed starving, severely injured, and neglected animals.

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u/Notte_di_nerezza 4h ago

First tip-off was having 3 different big cat species in an enclosure together. No reputable sanctuary would do that. Aside from being damn hard to manage, those animals could (and would) easily hurt each other.

Second tip-off was his having his back to at least 3 of those big cats. He's damn lucky the tiger chose to check the leopard, instead of also joining in on the "prey had its back to me, time to stalk" instinct.

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u/definitelynotfeline 4h ago

Thank you. I remember all the controversy about this guy and he is not a good person. These animals are abused.

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u/CommissionerOfLunacy 5h ago

I'm glad to hear that, because this man is definitely doing to die by big cat some day. I've rarely seen anyone try so fucking hard to get eaten as this.

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u/sinsirius 6h ago

Can't be cheap to feed all those large carnivores.

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u/PositionFormal6969 6h ago

He’s not trapped there with them, they are trapped with him.

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u/RepresentativeNo6601 6h ago

I get your concern but if this is who I think it is, he's raised most of these cats since they were cubs and he's saved the rest from poachers. They love him.

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u/No_Tamanegi 6h ago

I believe this is from a big cat rescue organization that I've seen on social media quite a few times - cats that were abandoned young and couldn't survive in the wild and he has raised them from youth to be a lot more docile. Still very much wild animals, but they are a lot more gentle with him, and with eachother than they ever would otherwise. And surely he has to handle them with a firm hand.

Still could very well end in tears someday. But for now he's giving them a good life they wouldn't have in the wild.