Several obvious points. First...the door to the Tiger area...wasn’t opened (at least every indicator says that so far). The three guys....all knew each other...and were all young...late teens or early 20s. Two guys got caught up by the Tiger about 200 to 300 ft down from the Tiger area...we are really told alot about the first guy but it appears that he got caught alot closer to the Tiger area...maybe right there at that point. The shooting of the tiger? It would have a terrific shot or two...up close...perfect hit on the heart...which I really doubt. I’d be thinking an assault type rifle instead, but they were very careful not to mention what it was.
My bet...one punk stuck his leg over into this moat area...maybe down three or four feet below the walking level...to bait the Tiger. The Tiger took the leap and caught the leg...not letting go. And then the cat dug his claws into the guy to climb out. The two buddies...took off running and got about two hundred feet down before the Tiger got to them. It would be nice to have video of this episode....which I bet one of the three was video-taping this entire thing.
My thought too. We've seen the "Jacka**" and "Wild Boys" crews do similar "stunts" like dangling over alligators or taunting lions in a zebra suit. I wonder if these guys were attempting to something similar and got on the wrong side of a very big and very angry cat.
Three young males drove 50 miles to go to the zoo on Christmas day- when it would be practically deserted. They wait until the zoo closes to approach the tiger. The kid that got killed had no id on him. This whole thing was preplanned. It was either some kind of initiation or it was a “jackass” inspired stunt. In fact, I’d be willing to bet this is a dare type thing that has been done before at this very same zoo and is known by kids in the area. They antagonize the tiger by throwing rocks and sticks at him. Then they stick their legs over to show how brave they are with the tiger jumping up at them. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if more than one of these young men took a turn at it that day.
Yea they were going to put it on U Tube...
Last overheard in the area...
"I don't have to outrun a tiger; I just have to outrun YOU!"