Posted on 12/28/2007 5:54:37 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
Today: December 28, 2007 at 4:55:7 PST
Zoo Director Says Tiger Wall Was Low
By JORDAN ROBERTSON and MARCUS WOHLSEN
Associated Press Writers
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -
The director of the zoo where a teenager was killed by an escaped tiger acknowledged Thursday that the wall around the animal's pen was just 12 1/2 feet high - well below the height recommended by the accrediting agency for the nation's zoos.
San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel A. Mollinedo also admitted that it was becoming increasingly clear the 350-pound Siberian tiger leaped or climbed out of its open-air enclosure, perhaps by grabbing onto a ledge.
"She had to have jumped," he said. "How she was able to jump that high is amazing to me." Mollinedo said investigators have ruled out the theory the tiger escaped through a door behind the exhibit.
According to the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the walls around a tiger exhibit should be at least 16.4 feet high. But Mollinedo said the nearly 70-year-old wall was 12 feet, 5 inches, with what he described as a "moat" 33 feet across.
He said safety inspectors had examined the 1940 wall and never raised any red flags about its size.
"When the AZA came out and inspected our zoo three years ago, they never noted that as a deficiency," he said. "Obviously now that something's happened, we're going to be revisiting the actual height."
Mollinedo said the "moat" contained no water, and has never had any. He did not address whether that affected the tiger's ability to get out.
On Wednesday, the zoo director said the wall was 18 feet high and the moat 20 feet wide. Based on the earlier, incorrect height estimate, animal experts had expressed disbelief that a tiger in captivity could have made such a spectacular leap.
"Before I said it was impossible, that's what I've said for the last two days," Jack Hanna, a former director of the Columbus Zoo who makes frequent television appearances, said late Thursday. "But today, I don't know if I'd use the word impossible.
"I think it could be feasible for a cat that has been taunted or angered," Hanna added. "I don't think it would ever just do it to do it. Somebody had to have provoked it."
Another tiger expert remained skeptical.
"It all depends on the surface and whether they could climb up it," said John Seidensticker, head of the Conservation Ecology Center at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. "I really don't think a tiger could spring that high. A leopard could. A leopard could in a minute."
Seidensticker emphasized that he has not seen the San Francisco Zoo's tiger enclosure.
AZA spokesman Steven Feldman said the minimum height is just a guideline and that a zoo could still be deemed safe even if its wall were lower.
Accreditation standards require "that the barriers be adequate to keep the animals and people apart from each other," Feldman said. "Obviously something happened to cause that not to be the case in this incident."
Feldman would not comment on how difficult it would be for a tiger to scale a 12 1/2-wall. But Siberian tigers are known to have phenomenal strength, at least in the wild.
"There are rare glimpses of this in the real world that suggest, when taunted, tigers can be fairly extraordinary in their physical feats," said Ronald Tilson, director of conservation at the Minnesota Zoo and the big-cat expert who sets safety standards for tiger exhibits at North American zoos.
Many other U.S. zoos have significantly higher walls around their tigers.
The animal, a female named Tatiana, went on a rampage near closing time on Christmas Day, mauling three visitors before it was shot to death by police. Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, died. Brothers Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, were at San Francisco General Hospital with severe bite and claw wounds. Their names were provided by hospital and law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the family had not yet given permission to release their names.
An attempt to reach Paul Dhaliwal on his cell phone Thursday was unsuccessful because his voice mail was full and wouldn't accept messages.
Police are still investigating and have declared the big-cat exhibit a crime scene.
The San Francisco Chronicle, citing anonymous sources, reported Thursday that police are looking into the possibility that the victims had taunted the tiger and dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of the moat. The newspaper said police had found a shoe and blood inside the enclosure.
But at a news conference, police Chief Heather Fong said police had no information that anyone had put a leg over the railing, and she said no shoe was found in the animal's enclosure. She did not address whether the victims had teased the tiger.
She said a shoeprint was found on the railing of the fence surrounding the enclosure, and police are checking it against the shoes of the three victims.
"Right now, what I want to know is if it was taunting, who did it? Why, why wasn't this protected right? I want some answers," said the dead teenager's father. As for the zoo, "They know what they did wrong, they know what they did."
Mollinedo said surveillance cameras and new fencing will be installed around the exhibit. The zoo will remain closed Friday.
At the Bronx Zoo, the tigers are surrounded by a 20-foot-high chain-link fence with a 5-foot overhang that curls inward at the top. An electrified wire runs along the inside of the fence.
The Philadelphia Zoo said it has 16-foot walls topped with a 3-foot overhang. At the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk, Va., the walls are 15 to 20 feet high with a 5-foot overhang and an electrified wire. At the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, Ariz., the wire fence is about 17 feet.
At the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Columbus, Ohio, Assistant Director Don Winstel said he checked the architectural drawings and plans for the enclosure on Wednesday, and found that the walls and fence around the tigers are no lower than 16 feet.
But "now that you mention it, I think I'll take a tape measure out there tomorrow and make sure," he said.
The AZA said in a statement this was the first time a visitor had been killed because of an animal escape at an AZA-accredited zoo.
"The San Francisco Zoo is a great zoo, it's an accredited AZA member in good standing, and it has our support during this difficult time," AZA president and chief executive Jim Maddy said.
The proposed improvements, however, did little to console Carlos Sousa, the dead boy's father, although he hoped they would protect other children.
"It's too late now. It's not going to bring my son back," he said.
Cops: Tiger Attack Victim Helped Friend
By JORDAN ROBERTSON and MARCUS WOHLSEN
Associated Press Writers
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -
The last minutes of a 17-year-old boy's life were spent trying to save his friend from a brutal tiger mauling at the San Francisco Zoo, only to have the animal turn on him, police and family members said.
Carlos Sousa Jr. and his friend's brother desperately tried to distract the 350-pound Siberian tiger, but the big cat instead came after Sousa.
"He didn't run. He tried to help his friend, and it was him who ended up getting it the worst," the teen's father, Carlos Sousa Sr., said Thursday after meeting with police.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2007/dec/28/122801861.html
So he succeeded in saving his friends life? That’s heroic.
Duh.. empty moat... tigers are great swimmers. It damn well had better have been empty...
Marian Roth-Cramer recalled the day she and her son, who was 4 or 5, visited the tiger exhibit in 1997.
"My son had his hands on the metal bar," said the San Francisco woman, a children's dance and family programs coordinator at a branch of the YMCA. "All of a sudden, I saw the tiger leap over the moat, put a paw on the dirt (and hang on). I screamed and grabbed my son."
The animal slid away. She turned to a zookeeper and asked if he'd seen what she had. His reply: "She always does that. She hates my guts."
She wrote a letter to David Anderson, the zoo director at the time, about the incident and canceled her membership. She said she never got a reply.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/27/MN39U4TQ5.DTL
The tigers may have enjoyed water in the moat. But I think the point of water in the moat is it would prevent the cat from being able to ~jump~ up the wall.
Thanks for the picture to make my point.
I doubt whether a tiger could jump a 16 foot wall if it is launching from a 6 foot moat.
Most Olympic high jumpers could not leap as high if they were forced to jump from the bottom of a swimming pool.
I suspect you’re both correct about the real reason for the water.
Funny how the news organizations first indicated the wall was 20ft, then 18ft, and now 12.5ft.
The wall was only 12.5 feet high? Well, no wonder the tiger got out!!!! I’ve seen a coyote hop a 10 foot block fence with no problem—they’re MUCH smaller than a tiger & are not supposed to be particularly good climbers.
If you stretch a full-grown tiger out from tippy toe to tippy toe, that’s got to be at least eight feet.
Sheesh.......
If any tiger had previously escaped, I might agree. However, we still don’t know all the facts and there remains the possibility the three victims may have contributed to their own demise.
Why is that funny?
Actually, the article says that a full grown Siberian tiger can stretch 12 feet.
That’s pretty damning.
Moat??? Tigers can swim...
“Actually, the article says that a full grown Siberian tiger can stretch 12 feet.”
The wall is 12.5 feet high, a full-grown tiger can reach 12 feet stretched out. Did no one put these two pieces of information together before opening the exhibit?
The zoo better have good liability insurance.
I don’t care whether the boys taunted the tiger or not.
The enclosure should have kept the tiger in. And the zoo is at fault for not doing it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.