Old video shows pride of lions roaming street in India, not in Ethiopia
- Published on April 10, 2025 at 17:45
- Updated on April 10, 2025 at 18:09
- 4 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, is home to a zoo with lions. A post shared recently on Facebook claims to show footage of lions roaming on a road on the outskirts of the city. However, the footage actually shows a pride of lions walking on a road in western India in 2024.
The text overlay accompanying the footage in Amharic reads: “Finally, the lions are seen roaming together around Furi. May God protect us.”
Furi is a city on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
The post was shared more than 800 times. The nine-second video shows a pride of lions roaming on a road.
“Please forward this message to all people… especially to our Muslim brothers and sisters who are out for prayer on the night of fasting,” the accompanying voiceover warns.
“There is a danger. Please avoid traveling alone and move in a group of more than two people.”
The post was shared during the Ramadan fasting season in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian National Palace in Addis Ababa is home to Unity Park, a small zoo that contains black-maned Ethiopian lions (archived here).
However, the footage does not show lions roaming on a road on the outskirts of the city.
Indian lions
No wild lions live near the capital, and AFP Fact Check found no reports of any lions escaping from captivity.
We used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video.
An extended and zoomed-in version of the video was originally featured in an article by an Indian television channel News 18, on November 12, 2024 (archived here).
“A herd of lions stopped a vehicle on the National Highway, the video went viral,” reads the headline of the report in Gujarati.
According to the report, the footage was shot by a motorist in Amreli district in the western Indian state of Gujarat, near the Bajrang petrol station on the Rajula-Gir Somnath national highway. The lions were crossing the road, heading towards a nearby forest.
This was confirmed by a signpost in Hindi visible in the Facebook videos, whose Google Image translation points to a Bajrang fuel station.
The video was also recently shared on Instagram by an Indian tour company (archived here), which did not mention the date of the incident but noted that lions often stray into villages near Gujarat’s Gir National Park due to overpopulation at the sanctuary.
Using the footage published by News 18 and the Instagram post, AFP Fact Check found matching features of the area on Google Maps.
Comparisons show that the fuel station’s structures, surrounding walls and greenery match the Google Maps imagery.
The electric transmission tower next to the station matches as well.
Last year in December, the same video went viral in the United States after Detroit comedian Jay Cotton claimed on social media that thirteen lions were roaming the city of Detroit. He later clarified on CBC News that it was a joke (archived here).
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
