Lighthouse Journalism came across a video claimed to be from Phoenix Zoo, where a tiger was seen sitting like a man. The video was shared stating that it was real. One claim also suggests that the tiger was shot dead. During the investigation we found the video to be AI generated. Viral claims are false.
Claim:
Instagram user Hey Bawa shared the viral video on their profile.
Check the archive version of the claim here.
Other users too are sharing the same claim.
Investigation:
We first checked if there are any news stories about the tiger sitting like a human in the Phoenix zoo. We couldn’t find any stories about the same.
The last story about a tiger in Phoenix zoo was when the zoo welcomed a new Sumatran tiger named Raja.
We didn’t find anything about the tiger on the website of Phoenix zoo.
It is unusual for a tiger to sit like a human being. This led us to observe the video. The video was very smooth and the movements of the tiger were a bit odd. This prompted the video to be AI generated.
We then ran the video through itisaar.ai, an AI detector made in collaboration with IIT Jodhpur.
The tool gave us a verdict that the video is fake.
Conclusion: Viral video of a tiger sitting like a human being in Phoenix zoo is fake. The viral video is AI generated. Viral claims are fake.
