Fact Check: Viral Report of Trophy Hunter Being Eaten by Lion Proven False

The claim: Trophy hunter is attacked and eaten live by the brother of the lion he’s posing with for Instagram photos.

On January 27th, a viral report began circulating on social media platforms claiming that a trophy hunter had been attacked and eaten alive by the brother of a lion he had killed for an Instagram photo.

At the time of writing this, the post had received over 54,000 likes, with over 5.6 million views and 6,000 retweets.

The original source of the claim appears to be a website called River City Post, which published an article on January 25th with the headline, “Trophy hunter eaten alive by the brother of the lion he eliminated for an Instagram story.” The article included a graphic video that it claimed showed the incident. However, the website provides no credible sourcing or evidence to back up the claim, and upon further investigation, it is clear that the video is not of the incident it purports to show but rather a short video posted four years ago by CBS News on a report of a suspected poacher eaten by lions.

The article featured an image of a Savannah Lion killed in the Kalahari Desert, South Africa over a decade ago, with a message falsely claiming that the photo was taken recently in South Africa.

A video was also shared in the comments section of the post, purporting to show a trophy hunter being attacked by a lion, as he posed for a photograph with another lion he had allegedly killed.

According to Snopes, a reputable fact-checking website, the viral claim of a trophy hunter being attacked and eaten by a lion has been proven to be false. The website cites issues with the authenticity of the video, such as the lion’s sudden and silent appearance from the horizon and the use of an image of a lion killed in 2013.

The report states that on April 28, 2013, a set of pictures depicting the outcome of a lion hunt in South Africa were uploaded to the website Hunting Grounds. Although an accompanying narrative offered details about the hunt, there was no reference to the hunters being assaulted by a lion.

The creators of the misleading video in question had manipulated a photograph of a lion that was hunted in 2013, superimposing it on a generic landscape resembling South Africa. They then staged a scenario in which a lion was depicted as taking revenge on two trophy hunters. The originators of this video remain unidentified, however, it is believed to have been produced as part of an anti-hunting advocacy campaign.

Overall investigation: False

Trophy hunting has been a controversial topic for decades, with many people opposed to the practice, arguing that it is cruel and unnecessary.

In this case, the video and the story of the trophy hunter being attacked and eaten live by the brother of the lion he’s posing with for Instagram photos are false.