San Francisco Zoo tiger escape » San Francisco Zoo

San Francisco Zoo tiger escape
26-12-2007

Its always tragic to read about such incidents and really raises the issue of how safe our zoos are.

Many reports state that the moat fronting the SF Zoo tiger enclosure is "15-feet wide". Is it a typo or some error because a 5-metre-wide moat for a tiger is ridiculously insufficient, considering tigers can jump horizontal distances of 10 metres.

26-12-2007

Such a terrible incident made even worse by the fact someone died and others were critically injured...

It was Tatiana wasn't it? She was the one who mauled a keeper last year if I remember correctly.

27-12-2007

It was the female tiger Tatiana, who was later shot dead by a police officer. I've been to the San Francisco Zoo, and its lion/tiger house is an antiquated exhibit that should have been torn down decades ago. That section of the zoo is well past its due date.

27-12-2007

News states the person she killed was taunting her. Rest in peace Tatiana. We didn't keep you safe from the public.

27-12-2007

Was it an obvious accident waiting to happen..?

27-12-2007

Hope I'm not being rude here and I don't mean to insult any zoo friends from the States - but like San Francisco Zoo? Wouldn't this zoo be a huge income earner? Why was the exhibit in such a poor state? Surely a beautiful creature such as this would warrant a fantastic enclosure to show her off? If this was Afghanistan yes - but San Francisco in the USA? I don't get it.

You tube videos
27-12-2007

Here's one news interview with Jack Hanna:


And news another clip:

27-12-2007

Jaywa: the lion/tiger house was constructed at least 40 years ago, and might be even older than that. There are actually some shocking exhibits at this zoo, along with several oustanding newer enclosures. If you go to the General Forum section of Zoobeat, then you will see a review that I posted on the San Francisco Zoo earlier this month. Their lemur island with 6 lemur species, the mixed-species, 3-acre African Savanna, and the grizzly enclosures are all excellent...but there are numerous antiquated exhibits that badly need to be updated.

27-12-2007

Snowleopard - I am very sorry to hear about the old enclosures. The legal expenses are going to be astronomical - it would have been cheaper to upgrade!

27-12-2007

According to the SF Zoo website it was opened in 1940...

27-12-2007

God help our animals - the things we do to them

28-12-2007

An enclosure that opened almost 70 years ago, with a pitiful amount of space for the inhabitants (lions and tigers)...no wonder the Siberian Tiger wanted to escape. It is still rather likely that it was aided in its quest to escape purgatory.

28-12-2007

The only "good" thing about this tragedy could be that this might result in the persons in charge finally improving the husbandry of the big cats left and even tearing down said building (or at least rebuilding it to live up to modern husbandry standards).

28-12-2007

From the looks of the Lion house from images on the web, it could be renovated to be suitable for a pride of Lions by:

Removing the walls of what is now four adjacent enclosures... Give the animals a private den, removing the public feeding cages and give viewing instead from inside...

28-12-2007

There must be something in the wind that is causing our animals to rebel. A circus trainer from Stardust Animal Circus was killed in Yamba, New South Wales, Australia yesterday apparently by an elephant he was unloading from a truck. He died of a heart attack and back injuries. It hasn't been decided what will happen to the elephant - but I think we all know.

Must tell you that we had a travelling Russian circus in Perth, Australia a few years ago who had a hippo in the troop. They forced the hippo to walk on a narrow wall surrounding the arena. Due to the protests by the animal activists they had to pack up and move on.