This Person Climbs a Tree, Then A Pride of Lions Shows Up

Things can always go wrong when it comes to being in the wild. Thunder and lightning can end a fishing trip, or a sudden rockslide can make a mountain summit unreachable. In this case, a person climbs a tree and gains the unwanted attention of a lion. Then a pride of lions shows up and sets up camp in the same spot. If viewers feel something unusual is happening here, they’d be right.

In the video titled “What would you do!?”, a man named Dean Schneider portrays himself as stuck in a relatively small tree. He’s less than 10 feet from the ground, and a male lion walks up to the tree’s base.

Watch This Terrifying Scene Below

The lion looks at the tree and immediately turns its attention to the human. The lion darts forward and jumps, placing both paws on the tree. The large creature’s paws are just a couple of feet below the man. The lion is essentially hugging the tree while looking at the human, which is terrifying.

Yet, the lion’s expression isn’t angry. The lion is curious why this human is in the tree, so it stretches as far as possible while showing off its claws. Although they may not be as adept as other big cats in Africa, lions can climb trees. If the lion wanted to be in the tree with the man, it would be all too easy.

When a Pride of Lions Comes Calling

Something draws the lion’s attention away, taking its eyes off the human in the tree. The scene cuts briefly. As it turns out, this was no lone lion. A pride of lions shows up, adding several lionesses to the mix. They lounge together at the tree’s base as the male lion greets a latecomer.

Remember when we said that situations in the wild can go from bad to worse in a heartbeat? It would be serious trouble if this were essentially any other human. Fortunately, the situation is not nearly as dire as the video suggests. Instead, the videographer Dean Schneider knows these lions. He has interacted with them in many of his other videos.

The lion reaching out to him wasn’t trying to pull him down from the tree. He was probably wondering why his friend had climbed up there without him. Several of Schneider’s social media posts show him laughing with hyenas, hanging out with a pride of lions, and getting up close and personal with elephants. He was never in any real danger in this video.

Any other person would be in an unfathomable amount of danger, though. Any unfamiliar person in a lion’s territory could become a target of the big cats or other creatures that tend to live nearby, like hyenas. For now, we all sighed in relief that this person was not stuck in a tree with lions waiting below. That would qualify as one of the scariest interactions a person could have!

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Nejron Photo/Shutterstock.com