iStockphoto / GlobalP
There are no escaped lions roaming the streets of Indianapolis. Any reports of lions escaping from the Indianapolis Zoo and roaming around were nothing more than a viral hoax designed to rile people up.
The Indianapolis Zoo got wind of this Internet hoax when a Facebook page named ‘Not Necessarily Kokomo News’ posted a screenshot of two lions, a male and a female, walking in the dark. The caption on their fake news reads “Escaped from the Indianapolis Zoo this evening, they were caught on camera at 6:37 pm on a trail cam along the White River. Be safe out there… do not approach”
Not only did the Indianapolis Zoo want to alert the public that there were no escaped lions, they also wanted to call ‘fake news’ on this page whose Facebook post has racked up over 25,000 shares in 18 hours. The Zoo responded with:
Who knew that April Fools’ Day came in December? Reports of lions escaping from our Zoo are not true. If you saw this image floating around social media, know that it came from a safari trail camera in Africa. All of our animals are safe and sound.#FakeNews pic.twitter.com/ixWTQQ7pbr
— Indianapolis Zoo (@IndianapolisZoo) December 21, 2023
On Facebook, most people seem to be in on the joke. The top comment is ‘can I pet that dawg?’ in a nod to the viral TikTok clip.
Interestingly, the post is still up on Facebook after 18 hours with 25,000+ shares, 3.9K comments, 1.7K reactions, and it doesn’t have a ‘fake news’ label attached to it yet. The Facebook Page also only has 5.2K likes and 8.2K followers so it’s clear there are some bad actors involved in sharing this just for laughs or worse, for fear mongering.
Just goes to show you should always be cautious about something that seems outlandish on the Internet.
In a world where a lion did actually escape from a zoo there is always an emergency response team and emergency response plan in place. The nearby public would be notified. It is not something that would be learned about on Facebook.