A tourist nearly had his arm torn off by a lion after he thought that it was a good idea to put his arm through the fence into the giant cat's enclosure.
The man, who has been named as Pieter Nortje, 55, was at the time taking a guided tour at a game lodge in South Africa as part of his 10th wedding anniversary celebration with his wife, but almost ended up losing his arm. A video of the incident was caught by his wife, and his since gone viral.
In the video, Mr Nortje can be seen poking his arm through an opening in the fence to stroke the giant predatory cat and can be heard saying to his wife in jest, "if you bite me, then I'm going to bite you back."
Alas, Mr Nortje did not have the chance to bite the lion as it suddenly plunged its teeth into his right forearm, reportedly digging into his bone and trying to drag him into the enclosure.
Shrill screams of people around witnessing the horror are said to have distracted the lioness, giving Mr Nortje time to yank his chewed up arm back through the fence. It was reported that after the incident Mr Nortje was rushed to a local hospital in Bloemfontein in a critical condition and suffering with septic shock. Indeed, it is the septic shock which may prove to be the end of Mr Nortje, as the reaction has a 25 to 50 percent fatality rate.
A spokesman for the Tikwe River Lodge where the incident occurred, has reportedly denied any responsibility, saying that, "there are warning signs everywhere. Nortje stuck his hand through the electric fence to touch the lions and was bitten."
A South African ranger who has extensive experience dealing with lions has been quoted as saying that, "the man was luckily that the lioness was probably not hungry or not used to killing live prey outside in the wild."
"Lions are pack animals and hunt as a team so others in the enclosure could easily have joined in and if they had done [they would have] killed him whether there was a fence between them or not," the man added.