A friend posted this picture remarking "Just look at the intense LIFE in these eyes."
I did, but I did not see it.
For one, the pupils are identical in size, but one of them appears to be slightly out of line. This is either a cross-eyed lion OR it’s taxidermy in which the glass eye ball has rolled a bit (pretty common).
My guess that this is taxidermy rose a bit when I looked at the mane, which appears combed and fluffed. Another clue is that this shot is an up-close, head-on shot with no background whatsoever.
A final tell is that this is a “white lion” which are now being bred to be shot as high end trophies at canned hunting facilities in South Africa.
Not sure if I am right. A search for the photo finds it has been used 1,000s of times across the internet.
2 comments:
Still obviously a wonderful creature as is, but it can be difficult to discern authenticity, as noted. Sometimes, an an image is too washed out, and at others it can simply too dark to see clearly. Regrettable.
L
Your breakdown is persuasive, but it's not what I concluded the last time I looked into this. This picture is included in heckling hyena's deviantart photography gallery. She says it was taken at Rosamond Gifford Zoo, and that the photo looks off because it was taken through glass (maybe this is what you picked up on?). Of the lions at Rosamond Gifford, I thought it was probably Joshua when I put together my "lions with names" Pinterest board. Now I want to see if I can find another photo of Joshua looking cross-eyed!
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