This is purely conjecture but perhaps his buddies had a good grip or he had his arms through a railing and thus was firmly anchored as he dangled above the taunted tiger? She makes a higher than expected jump and digs into flesh which allows her to essentially “run up” him much like lions “run up” the back of a zebra. It happens so fast that the tiger’s weight is off of him before he has a chance to fall into the moat losing only his shoe at this point. Maybe his terrified buddies, full of adrenaline, are pulling on him which allows the the tiger enough time to get out using him as a “ladder”.
I think you nailed it. Given the evidence, I don’t know what other explanation there could be.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/27/MNEJU4SVN.DTL&tsp=1
“footprint found on the metal fence...”
The tiger apparently by-passed other people to pursue the two friends of the guy that was killed ...
I don’t think the kid deserved to die or be mauled ,I
guarantee the parents of the dead kid will blame the zoo 100% even if overwhelming evidence — even confession — proves those guys helped the beast escape. They will claim that their son would never do anything like that and he was a good boy etc...