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Lioness turns Sh192k camera into a toy in Maasai mara


A tourist visiting the Maasai Mara had a unique chance to find out how true the saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’ is after an inquisitive pride of lions decided to chew up his Ksh192,400 worth camera.

The tourist had set up his Canon DSLR on a tripod to take close up pictures of a pride of lion using a remote control, when a lioness and her pride decided to move closer and investigate the machine.

The pride eventually turned it into a plaything, toying with it from mouth to mouth.

Fortunately the photographer got his possession back after the lioness had strutted around with her spoils. But it was all chewed up and the lens was destroyed.

According to an interview with the Daily Mail, Engineer Thomas Selig, 28, was able to capture some hilarious images of lions in the game reserve.

He said: ‘In the morning I took the photographs, we were watching the lions and they started to move and play. This was the moment another photographer on the safari got the idea to try to take a picture of the lions from very close with a landscape lens.

‘But the photographer didn’t anticipate how curious the lions are. When they saw the strange thing they all moved towards it. When the first one took the camera with the tripod, they all really wanted to play with the camera, thinking ‘it seems so funny’, so the camera changed many times from mouth to mouth.”

The whole scene lasted at least one hour, until the lions finally got bored with the camera and they went off to do something else, he said.