Close Encounters of the Near-Fatal Kind...

Just a friendly check-in for all of those friends and colleagues who work with dangerous animals - you cannot let your guard down.  Not. For. A. Minute.  Many of us who have been in the field for a long period of time have had at least some sort of close call where we ended up being fine, but were, for a minute, seriously teetering on the brink of being very, very, not-fine.  I'd thought I'd had a close shave or two before, but absolutely nothing like this:

I'm very glad that the keeper is okay.  I'm very glad that the lion is okay.  It's still terrifying that this happened, and is a constant reminder that you cannot be too careful when working with big cats, bears, and other dangerous animals.  Let's hope that everyone involved - and everyone of us who is even hearing about this - takes this near-tragedy to heart as a reminder of how important it is to be safe, both for our own sake, as well as for our colleagues, our visitors, and our animals.