An old video of a lion roaming in South Africa’s Sabi Sabi Reserve is being shared as a video shot in Assam - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 1, 2022
A video of a lion strolling at night is being shared through a social media post. The post description reads ‘ Lion in Bilbari of Kalkali in Karimganj district. There is tension in the area.’ Let’s fact-check this video through this article.
Claim: Visuals of a lion roaming in Bilbari of Kalkali in Karimganj district, Assam.
Fact: This video was originally filmed in South Africa’s Sabi Sabi private game reserve. It was uploaded on the Sabi Sabi Reserve’s YouTube channel on 27 October 2020. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Performing a keyword search on the internet to know if there were any news reports about the sighting of a lion in Assam did not fetch us any relevant information. Then we performed a reverse image search on the internet with a few screenshots from the viral video to find the source of the video, which the post claims was filmed in Assam. This search led us to an extended version of the viral video.
The description of the video reads, ‘Out of the darkness… one of the N’waswishaka male lions moves steadily about on a territorial patrol. What an incredible moment in time. Video by Matt Temperley’. It was uploaded on a verified channel named SabiSabiReserve on 27 October 2020. Sabi Sabi Reserve is a private game reserve located in South Africa.
To sum it up, an old video of a lion roaming in South Africa’s Sabi Sabi Reserve is being shared as a video shot in Assam.