Fact Check: Two Lions in Sudan Falsely Claimed in Cambodia
Weeks ago, joint authorities confiscated a pet lion from a Chinese man in his villa in Phnom Penh, which has become a topic of debate and sharing among Cambodian social media users vigorously. Meanwhile a viral photo showing two thin lions was posted by a Cambodian user on Facebook. This user claimed and linked that those animals were situated in Phnom Tamao Zoo. It was reacted with mixed comments and shared by Khmer-speaking social media users. However, after running a Google Reverse Image and Yandex, it proves that the claim above was false.
This is about our investigation of this claim.
Social Media Claim
On July 1, 2021, one of the Facebook users posted a photo showing the sight of two skinny lions. The same social media user also claims that both lions were kept on the grounds in Phnom Tamao Zoo, a zoo located in Bati district, Takeo Province. Photos with this post have been shared many times, along with mixed reactions and expressions from Khmer-speaking Facebook users after the confiscation of a pet lion from a Chinese national recently.
A screenshot image captured from a user's post that described in Khmer and translated in English as “Phnom Tamao Zoo officials embezzled the money for food for these animals makes them fall into this situation”.
The same photo was also posted and shared by other Facebook users in Facebook social network on July 2, 2021 with the questionable caption as “Zoo or the garden abuses animals?”.
Fact Check
Fact Crescendo Cambodia had started to check and verify this photo directly by running a Google Reverse Image search, which brought us to the sources containing the following photos.
An exact photo with the same format and features of the two lions was found in one of the twitter users posted on January 19, 2020. The same user claimed and asked to Sudanese leader to rescue lions from Khartoum Zoo in Sudan. The following screenshot was captured from the user’s tweet that says in English as “Mr. Prime Minister of Sudan @SudanPMHamdok, I am sorry for bothering you but I did not know to whom I address my appeal and scream out loud to save the lions in this Zoo at #Sudan #khartoum Please help these starving lions, this is against humanity”.
According to the Hindustan Times, it also reported on the sight of a skinny lion on January 24, 2020. The news report further confirmed that these lions are in Khartoum Zoo, Sudan, without specifying that it was located in Phnom Tamao Zoo unlike the users above have claimed at all. The following screenshot was captured from an international news website that states in English as “Heartbreaking images of starving lions in Sudan zoo prompt outrage”.
Hindustan Times's Report | Archived Link
The above case of the lion was also published and posted on Youtube on January 23. 2020 by the international newspaper AfricaNews. More pictures from the website that was written in English as “How social media outrage saved bony, starving lions in Sudan zoo”.
According to the Phnom Tamao Zoo Facebook page, they also denied the allegations on the evening of July 2, 2021, confirming that the photo showing the two skinny lions is actually found in a Sudanese zoo while some misleading users claimed that the animals were in Phnom Tamao Zoo instead. The caption from the Facebook page states in Khmer and translates in English as “Phnom Tamao Zoo and Wildlife Rescue Center honor to inform the public that this very thin lion image was factually taken from the Sudan Zoo and it was also published by Hindustan Time on January 24, 2020”.
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You may find the details of this fact-check in Khmer language here as well.
Conclusion
Fact Crescendo Cambodia has found that posting photos with the above-mentioned claims were false. These photos were not the lions at Phnom Tamao Zoo in Cambodia. The original photos showing two thin lions have been first found and taken since 2020 in Khartoum Zoo, Sudan.
Title:Fact Check: Two Lions in Sudan Falsely Claimed in Cambodia
Fact Check By: Kakada SimResult: False
