Is a video that shows a lion reuniting with a female caretaker and allowing the woman to embrace it real? No, that's not true: The original video appears to be AI-generated. The account that originally posted the video has posted other AI animal content.
The claim appeared in a video posted by X account @korkuvetitremee on Aug. 21, 2026 (archived here). It opened:
The lion reuniting with its old caretaker years later.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @korkuvetitremee on X.)
This is what the video looked like on X at the time of writing:
Yıllar sonra eski bakıcısıyla buluşan aslan. pic.twitter.com/kq7KZCZAfm
-- korku ve titreme (@korkuvetitremee) August 21, 2026
The video was originally posted on the Instagram account @ten4ic (archived here) on Aug. 20, 2026. This is what a screenshot of the post on Instagram looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @ten4ic on Instagram.)
This is what the video looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
While the video is not labled AI, a tell-tale sign is the woman's watch on her right arm disappears in the video, as these subsequent screenshots show (red circle added by Lead Stories).
There is a watch on the woman's right arm in this screenshot:
(Image source: post by @ten4ic on Instagram.)
In this image she does not have a watch on her right arm:
(Image source: post by @ten4ic on Instagram.)
The account posts other videos labeled as AI featuring the woman in unrealistic situations with animals. The account posted a video on its Telegram account @Я Таня | Я Худею | Я Ху*ею (archived here) with a bear jumping out of the snow at the woman in the video. The caption read, "AI is joking with me)))) this is a video only for yours-Funny video where Tanya has no pants on and the bear is standing on two legs 😂." This is what a screenshot of the post looked like on Telegraph at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @Я Таня | Я Худею | Я Ху*ею on Telegram.)
