A male lion fell from a waterfall while trying to escape a group of tourists harassing the animal for photos and videos.<\/p>\n
The moment unfolded at Kruger National Park in South Africa after the lion felt trapped and scared by onlookers getting too close, according to The Brew News<\/a>.<\/p>\n It managed to save itself once slipping and walked off, but the incident still sounded the alarm with many animal rights activists and conservationists.<\/p>\n Leaving wildlife alone is crucial to protecting the animals as well as yourself. Kruger National Park has clear rules to keep a safe distance from wildlife, which were clearly ignored in this circumstance.<\/p>\n While each park you visit will have different rules, on average, the National Park Service<\/a> recommends staying at least 25 yards away from most animals and 100 yards from predators like bears and wolves.<\/p>\n As a general rule of thumb, if the animal is aware of a tourist’s presence, you are likely too close \u2014 even if you’re technically following the guidelines set by the park.<\/p>\n If a wild animal feels threatened, they may potentially attack or charge humans, and when incidents like that occur, the animal in question is often euthanized.<\/p>\n Research has also shown that noise pollution \u2014 even just that of hikers passing through a habitat \u2014 can negatively impact local wildlife. The ramifications of human interactions can spike animal stress hormones, negatively impact birth rates, and throw off the balance of entire ecosystems.<\/p>\n Beyond keeping a safe distance to mitigate these concerns, hikers and tourists alike should refrain from feeding wild animals, both through intentional feeding and by leaving trash behind.<\/p>\n Not only does waste pollute the environment, but it also causes wildlife to grow accustomed to the food source, which can make them more susceptible to human interaction.<\/p>\n Park authorities are investigating the incident, and they plan to hold the tourist group responsible with a lifetime ban.<\/p>\n Join our free newsletter<\/a> for good news and useful tips, and don’t miss this cool list<\/a> of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A male lion fell from a waterfall while trying to escape a group of tourists harassing the animal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[76340,76341,76339,13490,48313,79,13172,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-118112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-rights-activists","9":"tag-group-of-tourists","10":"tag-kruger-national-park","11":"tag-national-park-service","12":"tag-safe-distance","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-tourists","15":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}