AI-generated video of a lion in supermarket misleads online
- Published on June 18, 2025 at 17:15
- 4 min read
- By Tendai DUBE, AFP South Africa
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“WILD LION STORMS INTO GROCERY STORE IN SOUTH AFRICA,” reads the caption of an X post published on June 14, 2025.
The 70-second clip shows two different scenes of a lion devouring meat straight from the meat section in a supermarket. A man is also seen running out of the store after attempting to approach the animal.
The owner of the X account describes himself as a South African based in the United States.
Similar posts have also been shared thousands of times on Facebook and liked more than one million times on Instagram.
But claims that the video shows a real lion eating meat in a South African store are false.
Creative content
The footage contains visible cues that it is AI-generated.
For example, six seconds into the video, the lion’s tail briefly fades and disappears before reappearing.
At 28 seconds, a shape that looks like an extra foot suddenly materialises out of nowhere by the lion’s hind legs. When the lion moves, it then morphs into something that looks more like a piece of meat.
At 48 seconds, a visual effect that looks like water drops appears in front of the meat display and changes some of the meat packs into different shapes. This is especially noticeable in the bottom-left corner.
Three seconds later, a roll of ham on the floor starts moving before the lion touches it.
The video currently circulating is watermarked “@ataquesferoz”, which a Google search shows belongs to a TikTok user.
The TikTok account posted the video on June 14, 2025, with a caption reading “Wild Lion Storms Into Grocery Store #animals #wild animals #Lion #Africa” (archived here).
However, it also labelled the video as AI-generated.
According to TikTok, it requires “people to disclose realistic AI-generated content (AIGC) so that they can express their creativity while providing context for viewers” and asks users to report if they see “undisclosed realistic” AI-generated content (archived here).
The TikTok account contains hundreds of similar AI-generated videos that show animals performing jaw-dropping feats.
Although the video of the lion was fabricated, wild animals do occasionally escape from wildlife reserves or wander onto the streets in South Africa. For example, four lions got loose from Kruger National Park in April 2025, and more recently, an elephant seal wandered inland in May (archived here and here).
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