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Africa is the only continent on the planet where lions can be found in the wild, so some people in Ireland were obviously alarmed when a viral video appeared to show one roaming the woods on the Emerald Isle. However, police have gotten to the bottom of the matter after tracking down a dog with a haircut that made it resemble one of those big cats.
There are some people out there who would think twice about traveling to Australia due to its reputation for being home to a wide array of venomous snakes, spiders, and aquatic creatures that you don’t want to have a close encounter with.
There’s another island nation that firmly falls on the opposite end of the “Dangerous Animal” spectrum, as you’d have to go out of your way to end up in a precarious position during a trip to Ireland; cows are statistically the “deadliest” animal it has to offer, but farmers are really the only people who have to worry about them.
It goes without saying you don’t need to be overly concerned about coming face-to-face with a lion in Ireland, but some people were on high alert after a video sparked a police investigation that led them to a decidedly less threatening culprit.
Police in Ireland tracked down a dog with a haircut that was at the center of a viral video of a “lion” that was spotted in the woods
On October 29, a trucker driving through County Clare captured a video of an animal that certainly resembled a lion making its way into a forest in the vicinity of the village of Mountshannon.
Gardaí have said that they’ve received no reports of a lion on the loose in Co. Meath, after footage circulated on social media claiming to show just that.
The footage is believed to have been recorded somewhere in the Kells area, in Co. Meath. pic.twitter.com/KEmvFv6PTP
— Boyne News (@BoyneNews) October 30, 2025
According to CorkBeo, a spokesperson for the Garda (Ireland’s national police force) confirmed they had received a report of “a large animal in a wooded area” and had dispatched officers to look into the matter.
It took a few days, but the people of County Clare can now rest easy after the Garda shared a picture of the animal in question: a brown Newfoundland named “Mouse,” who is not a lion but rather a dog that got a haircut to make him look like one.
Mystery solved! Turns out the “lion” spotted roaming Clare was just a Newfoundland dog with a fresh haircut!
Gardaí from Killaloe have concluded that the recent video of a “lion like” animal roaming around the woods in East Clare is in fact the very friendly dog named ‘Mouse’. pic.twitter.com/xjlms0nNaY
— Garda Info (@gardainfo) November 4, 2025
It seems like there’s a chance Mouse was sporting that look for Halloween when you consider he managed to cause a stir just a couple of days before the holiday rolled around, and here’s to hoping he got some treats for pulling off a very successful trick.