Zari The Lioness Tries ‘Playing’ With Toddler Behind Thick Glass [Video]

Zari is a lioness at El Paso Zoo, and she loves human toddlers. From the video it’s difficult to tell if she likes them as friends or food, but in any case it makes for a great clip. The toddler remains in a blissful state of ignorance to the massive lioness paws and bites the glass just a few inches away.

The Huffington Post reports that zoo officials say the toddler was never in any danger because the glass barrier is “really thick.” Likewise, they say that Zari was only displaying “play” behavior, and did not intend to attack the little human.

The video was shot in 2012, at El Paso Zoo in Texas. According to the Telegraph, at the time, Zari was about seven-years-old and was one of four lionesses in the enclosure.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, some lions in the wild can exhibit surprisingly compassionate behavior. One lioness, who killed a baboon, found a young baby clinging to the dead mothers back. Instead of eating the infant, which the lioness could have done in one large gulp, she protected it until the baby baboon’s father rescued his son.

Whether the lioness at El Paso Zoo would have had the same mercy with the human toddler is a matter of speculation. Still the zoo was happy to release the video, adding a statement to the description.

“This is Zari a lioness at the El Paso Zoo. I have been sharing this video with family and friends on my IPhone6 plus and am glad to see the Today Show help share the story. This is by far one of my favorite videos taken over the years and with my phone video camera!”