Fact Check: Viral image of elephant carrying lion cub is fake
Vishvas News in its investigation found out that an old edited image made on account of April Fools day in 2018 is going viral now as April Fools day is approaching in 2022 on various social media platforms. The image is photoshopped.
- By: Ankita Deshkar
- Published: Mar 30, 2022 at 09:19 AM
New Delhi (Vishvas News): Vishvas News came across a picture of an Elephant carrying a lion cub and a lioness walking besides it, on various WhatsApp groups. It said that the animals help each other out and that its a great lesson for mankind. Vishvas News in its investigation found that the image is going around various social media platforms since 2018 and that the image is edited.
Claim:
The image carried in the video on a YouTube channel, ‘Vichitra Dunia’ on Feb 14, 2022 at 1 min 13 seconds, claims, “This photo has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social networks this week, with a caption explaining that it shows an elephant helping a mother lion by carrying her tired baby in the crook of his trunk.”
Check the post and its archive version here.
Investigation:
Vishvas News started with a simple Google Reverse Image search on the picture.
We found a Mumbai Mirror article titled: Kruger National Park: An elephant, a lioness, a cub and an April Fool’s joke.
The article said that the picture was shared as an April Fools joke by the Kruger National Park Twitter handle.
Read the article here.
Vishvas News also found the original picture on the official Twitter handle of Kruger National Park, Kruger Sightings, @LatestKruger.
It said: We were following a lioness carrying her cub & she was getting really tired. An elephant showed up wanting to help the lioness. The elephant put its trunk down, the cub jumped up & the elephant carried the lion cub!!
S28, 3km from S entrance
Tinged by Sloof Lirpa
This picture was shared on April 1, 2018.
If one reads the last two words of the post, ‘Sloof Lirpa’ it comes out backwards as, ‘April Fools’.
We also came across a comment on the same, made by Indian IFS, Parveen Kaswan who explained how the collage must have been made.
Vishvas News then came across a tweet by Nadav Ossendryver who runs the @LatestKruger page, CEO of Kruger Sightings. He wrote: Yesterday I shared an April Fool’s joke that went super viral.
It reached a total of 6million people with an engagement coming in every 0.5 seconds!
It took a lot of planning, so here is how to make your April
Fool’s go viral
In the next step of investigation Vishvas News has reached out to Nadav Ossendryver through Twitter. He agreed that he had shared the photoshopped image of the elephant and the lioness and her cub.
In the last step of investigation, Vishvas News did a social background check of thde YouTube channel that carried the viral picture and a story about the same. Vichitra Dunia has no subscribers so far.
Conclusion: Vishvas News in its investigation found out that an old edited image made on account of April Fools day in 2018 is going viral now as April Fools day is approaching in 2022 on various social media platforms. The image is photoshopped.
- Claim Review : This photo has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social networks this week, with a caption explaining that it shows an elephant helping a mother lion by carrying her tired baby in the crook of his trunk.
- Claimed By : Vichitra Dunia
- Fact Check : False
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