A baby zebra was brought to the Oregon Zoo recently by a Bend family. When a lioness at the zoo saw the zebra she figured she found a very tasty meal. The only thing wrong with this picture is that the zebra was in fact a one-year-old boy named Jack. Jack was on a trip to the zoo with his family and had been dressed in clothes that were black and white striped. The lioness, Kya, desperately tried to eat the boy through the thick glass separating her from the family.
The incident at the zoo occurred on April 26 and it was recorded on video and has since gone viral on the internet. As evidenced by the video, it seems as if Jack was not bothered in the least bit by the lioness. Jack’s family can be heard laughing in the background on the video. Jack’s mom, Heather Baltzor, even tried to get her son to say ‘hi kitty, kitty.’
Baltzor had the following to say about the incident:
“It was Jack’s first trip to the zoo. We didn’t even realize he looked like a zebra until we got home but a lot of the animals in the zoo — the crocodiles and the jaguars — apparently did. They would come up to the glass and look at him. We were not worried. We thought it was hilarious.”
Kim Smith, the director for the Oregon Zoo, said that it is common for the lions at the zoo to interact with children who come to see them.
“She’s using a typical prey behavior,” Smith said.
Baltzor also said that she thinks she knows why Kya was so enamored with her son Jack.
“He was quite a hit. She must have thought he looked pretty tasty that day,” she said.
Baltzor also said that she will be taking Jack to the San Diego Zoo over the summer months this year and she said he will be wearing the same zebra outfit. “I think we definitely should.”
