Lions have four toes in front- the fifth is offset. At this angle, you’d only see four, not five. The innermost toe is way too high and way too visible for this to be a real lion.
It’s pretty far back, you wouldn’t see that tuft of hair from that angle.
Also it appears one of his middle toes has two claws, he’s missing the offset toe on his other foot, and the cub’s foot isn’t sinking into the mane at some parts. It’s really convincing- but it’s not real.
I sent this to @kaijutegu last night because she’s my expert AI identifier, and I think it’s so interesting to see the differences in what we both noticed about this video. And yeah, this one is tricky! I was only half-sure it was fake.
She immediately noticed the feet and the cub’s eye shape changing. Super specific anatomical differences.
My thoughts were more along the lines of: that adult male lion looks too perfect for a wild lion, also where did he get his mane blown out. I noticed more of the behavior, too, that he’s being way too chill about a cub on his head and not reacting to it shifting around at all (even the most tolerant dads are going to grimace a little). And the cub looks too coordinated to me for a baby that little.
It’s neat to me how many ways there can be to catch AI fakes, even when they’re this good. You don’t have to be an expert in a specific animal’s behavior – heck, the anatomy aspect is probably more concrete and less subjective than a behavioral interpretation.
Here’s two screen-grabs of a very, very tolerant dad (and his facial expressions) with cubs about the same age as the fake one. This is Chisulo from Fresno with his current cubs.
amhrancas 