For Rick Faber, Circus Fan

I hope I don't come off as a spastic, as Jack Hanna did, in a effort to be nice to everybody, and politically correct. The news folks at Fox probably wanted to get the input of Animal Planet "expert" Jeff Corwin too, as they normally would, but he is tied up with being a Food Network host at the moment cooking sausages in Scotland. LOL Kidding aside, with due respect to "General" Jack Hanna, I have to disagree with him. I guess it is has something to do with "have been there, done that" a whole lot of times, and not much to do with a high dollar degree or diploma of "higher education." He does admit to never being attacked by a lion, but concedes a bear cub attacked him a few weeks ago!!!!! My God Jack!!!!! Tell us more, and don't spare the gory details. LOL Once again Fox's crack research department searched high and low, all the world over, to find a real expert to commentate. The next time there is a space shuttle disaster, I would hope Fox contacts me for my expert opinion. Not for nothing, but I have watched it blast off 5 times, and watched it go over head in the dead of night one time from 200 miles away. No need to verify my expertize on space shuttle disasters, I just documented it for you Fox, so give me a call. LOL But I digress..........

The "look" is an instantaneous, fast as a blink of the eye, tenseness of the animals body. Watch a wildlife film of a feline at the exact moment of attack. It stops, freezes, ears lay down and muscles coil. That's the "look", which you actually "feel" before you visualize. It's an invisible force or "thing". It is what a gunfighter "sees/feels" a nano second before his opponent draws. Poker players call it "the tell." You have to recognize it and react a nano second before you actually feel it once you sense/see it.

Start the video and stay focused right on the male lion, but first observe the female on the left "playing" with an object. That play's into what happens a few seconds later, and why she continued "playing" when the male attacked.

At the beginning of clip the bigger guy, obviously the "man in charge", turns to his right(the direction of the female) and removes his cell phone/pager(note the male looking in that direction also) The "man in charge" either got a message or was checking the time to see how much longer they had to stay here. The male had been here, done this before and he sensed like always, all attention would be on the female acting the fool. Now watch this remarkable creature play every body like a harp. He know's what he is going to do, he has felt/sensed it for a while now. Humans have to try to be smarter, and "sense/feel" what they are thinking?

Now watch the "man in charge" in the middle after he checks his cell phone. He see's the male yawn(they will often do that and stretch just before they get up. Now he leans towards the male(enters his space), bored(hands on hips) but he still can't decide what the lion is going to do, stay laying or get up, what with the phone ringing just a moment before. That's a human flaw that an animal does not possess. We think before we react, and an animal does not.
Now the male turns to look at his target, and the "man in charge" looks and continues leaning(keeping dominance) into the males space. At exactly :17-:18, BANG, there it is. The "look", the "tell", the message delivered loud and clear in a nano second of ear twitch, muscle tense, as the male leans into his quarries space with his weapons of front feet and shoulders, "Hell is coming, and it is riding a white horse." The "man in charge" then reacts, "oh shit", and steps to the lions right shoulder(he should have stepped around the male, and positioned himself between him and his quarry)pat's the male to say " don't do it, I'm in charge here" and the most incredulous thing, then backs away(in that second the male say's, "I got you in charge, right here General!!!!") The "man in charge" knew something was up, he just didn't know what. (don't try to convince me humans are smarter then animals!!!) He scratches his nose, still not sure, looks at the lions quarry with the lion, still trying to figure out what is happening here. He can "feel" it, he just doesn't understand it. Remember the female I told you to note, "playing" on the left? Watch close at :32-:33 as she starts to get up with her "toy." At that exact same instant the male makes his move. He had it all figured out and knew what he was going to do. That glorious creature was 15 seconds ahead of the "superior, smart humans." Because he was ready, he did not think as a flawed human would, and the exact moment the female raised up with her toy, the planets collided. He didn't even have to to look, he "felt/sensed" the moment is now. The animal in charge stepped away, the female made a commotion, which he "felt/sensed" would take mere mortal sense's of hearing and sight in that direction, as he moved in the opposite, and had his intended target. What saved that man was the lions "captive indecision" of "I have it, now what do I do with it", nothing else. The female who was in another zone, that being the play zone, just continued playing, ticked that the male was playing with her, not even realizing what he was playing with. If the "man in charge" had instantly tried to get between the lion and his prey, instead of pushing the two away from himself for 6 seconds, he could have freed him quicker. The "man in charge", would have probably taken a hell of a hit, maybe even died, but that's what you do when you have someones back, especially if you are in charge. Watch as the male circles around him and attempts to have another go at his quarry, he heads for high ground(as does the female. It just dawned on her, the male wasn't playing, and she didn't want any of him either.) I promise he would not have gotten away a second time. That lions hard wired behavior, while dormant in captivity, had instantly resurfaced.

"What does a trainer do when he sees/feels the look? No, he doesn't leave, because if he did chance's are he could never return. You don't "power" respect into an animal, contrary to what folks who don't have a clue may suggest. You were called, you folded your hand, and left the game. No, you bluff power, as they bluff power. They call you, you raise them, and they fold. You react a nano second before the "look" is "spoken" completely. He, in a sense "interrupts" the animal with the same instantaneous "look" which is really just a felt "force" which the animal sent at you. You have to send it right back at the animal before he calls you. Again, two gunfighters in the middle of the street at high noon, both sending the force, waiting for one to react, so the other can react quicker. Make your move, That is the "look" that should have been returned, when the lion first "spoke" it.

To respond to whether an animal can "sense" human fear, confusion, apprehension, nonchalance, etc. etc. Yes they can in an instant. That is how they survive. They don't think, they react. How much time do you have to "interpret" what the "look" means, before it is followed by the force(bluff) No time, because sometimes it is immeasurable. I pointed out that these gentlemen in the video had 15 seconds in which to "feel" it. Many animal trainers, including myself have had the same gracious time. But sometimes it is different for many animal trainers, including myself and the blink of an eye is almost immeasurable. My collegue and friend Josip Marcan has a video he took when I got mauled a few years ago in Evanville, by the tiger that my son Adam now has. Josip put the video in freeze frame, and from the moment Spartacus gave me the "look", turned away, wheeled, covered nine feet ground, struck me and jerked me to my knee's, and leaned back for a second go, 1 1/2 seconds had expired. That's what they mean by "time standing still." Continuing the freeze frame, from the moment I went to my knees and Spartacus was coiling for another hit, I jumped back on my feet, and 3/4 of a second had expired. Man is not designed to move as fast as an animal, but I promise if you are sufficiently scared, you will evolve Peregrine wings in a heart beat.
No disrespect to the two gentlemen in the video. I can't really speak to what they were thinking at the moment. They like me, are human and nobody know's how the human animal thinks. But I can speak for the lion. Animals don't think, they react, and they are deadly honest.

To borrow part of a quote from Robert Duvall in the movie Apocalypse Now "God, I love the smell of animal training in the morning." You win some, you lose some, but usually you just break even.