Akron's Lions Never Escaped. The Photo Was Made by AI

There are no lions roaming Akron, Ohio, and there never were. The Akron Zoo spent part of last week explaining that a photograph of a lion standing by a trash can, which convinced a good number of people that its lions had escaped, was generated by AI.

"There has recently been inaccurate information about the Akron Zoo's African lions escaping earlier this week. Some statements include a false AI photo of a lion in Akron," the zoo said in a statement on Saturday, November 7. "Our lions remain in the safety of their habitat."

The timing is what made the fake believable. On Wednesday, November 4, the zoo had closed to visitors for its annual large-scale safety drill, held with the Akron Police Department and the Akron Fire Department. One of the scenarios the drill rehearses is a dangerous animal escape. Word of a closed zoo rehearsing an escape, meeting a realistic photo of a lion on a city street, did the rest.

The drill is not optional pageantry. The zoo's accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums requires at least four safety exercises a year, including escape drills, to protect guests, volunteers and staff.

The four lions at the center of the story are Donovan, a male born in 2015, and three females, Mandisa, Kataba and Msinga. All four were accounted for, in their habitat, where the zoo's own follow-up photo showed the lionesses doing what lions do for most of the day: sleeping. Cleveland broadcaster WOIO carried the same confirmation to the region the same day.

It's worth noting how checkable the whole thing was. The zoo had announced the drill day in advance, and its debunk post linked back to that original announcement. The closure was scheduled, the drill was routine, and the photograph was synthetic. Every fact needed to kill the rumor was public before the rumor peaked, and the rumor still outran all of them for the better part of three days.

The fake image has since become much harder to find online, Parade reported, which is how these things usually end. The photo travels, the correction follows at walking pace, and the only reliable record of the whole episode sits with the zoo, which would like everyone to know that its lions are exactly where they are supposed to be.

For the record, they were never anywhere else, and the zoo's keepers, head counts and habitat checks said so from the very start of the story.