JOHANNESBURG — A lioness in a wildlife park in South Africa is being hailed as the “Rosa Parks” of the animal kingdom.
Linli Leeu, an eight-year-old lion from the Waddawuwu Game Reserve, was caught on video as she opened a car door with the intention of hitching a ride with the human occupants out of the 212-square-mile enclosure.
“I didn’t know they could do that,” says one frightened female human as the lioness tries to squeeze next to her.
When the door is pulled shut and locked, the indignant lioness can be seen rejoining the pride and briefly mulling over ways to overthrow the human oppressors. Her thoughts move on to food before forgetting about the incident.
A law forbidding animals in wildlife parks from riding with tourists has been in place in 1948, but is if often flouted by increasingly brazen members of the lion community who see themselves as more than a diversion for visitors.
Revenue from tourism is an important part of the South African economy, bringing in more than $6 billion in 2013. Some leaders in the tourism sector are calling for stricter laws to prevent animals from stampeding, emitting weird noises, and devouring each other — or anything else that might be disquieting to visitors not accustomed to South African fauna.
Watch the video below: