Siberian tigress 'Zeya' flehmen 1976

I took this photo to show the characteristic flehmen expression.
This is the tigress that killed two keepers in separate incidents in 1980. After the second death, John Aspinall shot her.
Kodachrome transparency taken October 1976, scanned to PhotoCD and edited.

Nice to finally put a face to the name, if in rather unfortunate circumstances.

Was this the mother of Balkash, who also killed a keeper?

No, she was shot in 1980. I think 'Balkash' was born in 1992, although he was related to 'Zeya'. I don't have the studbooks to check all the details.

Alan

A shame she had to die because her keepers/management didn't know what they were doing!

I don't think the keepers should be blamed for the various fatalities at the Aspinall parks-they knew the risks but were merely following the orders from John Aspinall insisting they form an "intimate" relationship with their charges. Certainly excellent keeper staff have left in the past due to clashes with the family.

Leading on from this, does anyone know if the family still go in with the gorilla families?

According to a talk I went to in June, only Damian Aspinall does.

The first fatality with 'Zeya' and the third with 'Balkash' seem to have been due to keepers trusting animals that had previously been trusted. In the case of the second fatality, 'Zeya' had been moved into the next enclosure enclosure while the keepers were working on hers, because she was known to be dangerous; but her cub was still in the original enclosure and 'Zeya' climbed over the fence. With hindsight it's easy to spot the errors.

Alan

And I think probably only with the Kifu group, though the young male Ebeki from that group has now become the replacement male for the old Kijo group- so its possible he may go in with him/them as well.

Correction. I thought I had taken this photo on my second visit to Howletts, but I have just found the original slide mount and the label says that I took the photo on my first visit on 23rd June 1974.