#9: That’s One Wacky Lion

Have you ever read any of those early descriptions of America that Spanish explorers wrote? They sound like they’re hallucinating… We’re serious; they’re supposed to be first-hand accounts but read more like fantasy fiction. It seems other parts of the world had the same problem, judging by how one taxidermist thought lions looked. 

In the taxidermist’s defense, photographs hadn’t been invented yet, so there was no way they could know what a lion looked like unless they traveled to the savannah themselves, which wasn’t an easy feat in 1731. Perhaps the King should’ve put more effort into his descriptions, considering this would have been a pricey expedition.