What a bunch of idiots. What were they thinking? In a situation like that you use Photoshop. Right? Not a real lion. That creature could have finished them all off entirely. And very quickly. I'm baffled by such stupidity.

I agree. this was not very well set up. very unprofessional. you get in, get the shot and get out. respect the animal.

It's not much of a martial art if a teacher of it can not see a 400lb lion coming.

Absolutely no reason not to photograph those elements separately. Looks like both the model and animal suffered the consequences here.

So the lion sees animals (photographer, model) making aggressive moves (crouching, etc), which might indicate it is going to be attacked. The natural reaction is to attack first - which is exactly what happened. The trainer should have warned the model and photographer about this, and the lion should have been chained to the floor, preventing any possibility of it being able to get to the model or photographer. A long lens would make it appear that they are closer than they actually would be.
If the lion really wanted her, it would have over powered the handler. As you see, he really was not able to prevent the lion from getting to her. If it had bit her just right, she could have died. This was really close. You need more than insurance, you need a good handler.

If the only lesson you take from this video is that photographers need insurance, them you are as myopic as the individuals involved in this fiasco. The ironies here are multi layered and speak volumes about our hubris, naivety, inauthenticity, and lack of awareness.

The final irony is that the cover shot isn't particularly well executed and hardly worth the risk, let alone the consequences, of such stupidity.

WOW! They should have seen that coming! :O

Seriously, a 400 pound kitty is NOT a toy or a prop. I fully agree: shoot separately, composite in Photoshop. And one other note, if AT ALL possible, I would NOT use strobes to light the lion! That's got to be disconcerting to the animal. No wonder it felt threatened. Use hot lights that are on when the animal arrives or can be brought up slowly so the animal can acclimate to them, not this random popping of blinding light from a crouching, bouncing, even intimidating prey (photographers and martial art teachers are tasty with ketchup)

Are you kidding me? I agree that if the only lesson you're getting from this is "get insurance," you need to be going back to school. Kindergarten, maybe.

You either shoot the elements of this piece separately, or you get a *trained* lion that is accustomed to photo shoots and working with stuff going on around him. You don't take some random lion out of the zoo and put him in this kind of uncontrolled situation and... AAAAAGH. The stupid! It burns!!!

poor lion. forced to lay there next to some stupid hippie posing wannabe martial arts moves. idiots. she looked like a wounded retarded ostrich. of course the lion decided it was natural selection time. smart lion.