Tourists immediately regret their decision after attempting to pat a wild lion

Tourists on safari in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania were lucky enough to come inches away from two sleepy lions. Seeing the once in a lifetime opportunity, one of the tourists mustered all the power of their one brain cell and decided it would be a great idea to lean out of the vehicle to try to touchthe beast.

The clip shows the tourists filming the lions peacefully chilling just outside of the jeep, just inches away from the windows leaving the passengers in the back at close enough to touch one of them.

While the man was happily filming away at his close encounter, his fearless fellow passenger reaches across him to pat the lion like a good little kitty.

The beast doesn't have much of a reaction at first but as the tourists get a little closer again he turned to fire a warning growl.

Others in the vehicle panicked at the sound and quickly told the two in the back to 'close the window' but right as the man was reaching across to slide the thin plastic shutter, the lion came out with a roar.

The fright was enough for the tourist to drop his camera but after quickly resuming his video the lion can be seen to have moved away from the bothersome two.

The video was uploaded to Youtube and commenters had a lot to say about the tourists' actions. One viewer commented:

Had things have taken a turn for the worst, the poor lion would have been the one shot, even though it was only doing what come to it naturally!

Another stated:

Why do people have no respect animals! Its a wild animal and we are in it's space yet if something happened the poor animal would be accountable!

And the commenters do have a point, not only is this a very quick way to get banned from the park but any number of consequences could have seen either the passengers or thelion injured.

Hopefully, these tourists have learned a valuable lesson.