Lions Pounce on Fallen Camera Drone After a Fly-By Goes Horribly Wrong

Here’s another case to file under “It’s a bad idea to fly camera drones too close to animals”: James and Mira Raley of The Honey Badger recently tried to do a “quick flight” with their camera drone over a group of male lions. Unfortunately for them, they lost control during the flight, crashed the drone into a nearby tree, and watched helplessly as the lions pounced on the fallen “prey” with the camera still rolling.

The Raleys are currently traveling from the United Arab Emirates to South Africa and documenting their journey online. The video above was captured during a stop at the Antelope Park private game park in Zimbabwe, which does lion breeding and rehabilitation. They were hoping to capture some footage of the lions from above with their DJI Phantom drone and GoPro action camera.

“We thought that a quick flight over the group of huge male lions was a good idea. We were wrong,” they write in the video’s description.

Here’s a longer video that shows what the camera saw during the 8 minutes following its crash. The lions subdued it, carried it around, and nibbled at it for a while before losing interest and walking away:

Just last month we shared a strangely similar video captured by a drone that was punched out of midair by an angry kangaroo.

(H/T F Stop Lounge)