Man casually pushes a lion called Gaydar into back of a car before driving off with its head out of window

A man was caught pushing a lion into the back of his car before driving off with the animal sticking its head out the window.



Yakub Dalgatov was filmed putting what appeared to be an almost fully grown lion into the back of his car and leaving a window open for the big cat to look out.



The lion, named Gaydar, was clearly unwilling to get into the car but Mr Dalgatov forced it onto the back seat and closed the door behind it.



The big cat nearly escaped through the open window but Mr Dalgatov caught it and shoved it back inside his car.



The incident was filmed by an eyewitness with a smartphone in the city of Makhachkala, the capital of south-western Russia's Dagestan Republic.



Gaydar was on a lead but was not wearing a muzzle in the clip which is believed to have been filmed several months ago but only just appeared on video-sharing platforms.



Police launched an investigation after the video proved popular online and quickly identified and questioned Mr Dalgatov.



He told officers that the video was old and that he had got rid of the lion in April 2017, although it is unclear how he did so.