A Park Reborn: Close Encounter With a Lion | Nat Geo Live

( Intro music )

Bob Poole: One day this guy showed up. He was like nothing I'd ever seen before. We had no idea where he came from, but he was wild. You can tell a lot about a lion when you look in its face. What's its life been like? The first time I filmed him is something I'll never forget.

I'd recently built this low-angle camera mount for my Land Rover that attached to the side. And I made it for filming lions because with lions, you know you want to get down on their level. You see them in the eye. You don't want to look down on them. If anything you want to look up. But, you know... I'd never met a lion like this guy before.

And when I—one day Rui gave me his coordinates. He was out with the lion. And I was so excited, I came in way too fast. And I came in too close. And the next thing I knew, I was in a stare down with this lion. And he was so close I felt like I could touch him. But all I could see was the scars on his face and his eyes staring straight down my lens.

Over my radio, I heard Rui say, "Whatever you're doing stop right now". ( Audience laughter ) And... I was in a very exposed position outside of my car. And I slowly panned the camera away from Nginga's glare while his tail twitched outside my frame. And... I braced myself because I heard the lion snarl and grunt.

And then I heard the grass moving rapidly and I braced myself thinking, "That's it, I'm done." But the lion had sprung the other way and disappeared into the tall grass. So from that time onward, I always came at this lion with a lot more respect. ( Audience laughter )

I actually used to drop a camouflage veil in front of me. I ended up getting nice low-angle shots of him but... never that close again. ( Audience laughter )