I worked as a zookeeper for almost ten years and anyone who thinks it is not dangerous to be a visitor at a zoo is just not taking in the whole picture.
Even with safe guards there are aspects like human error, equipment or material flaws, breeding season, age, length of time in captivity, etc that can lead to tragedy. Tigers are nocturnal so dusk dark would be an active and potentially very dangerous time. Tigresses are especially ferocious when pushed to extremities (page 272 in the excerpt from the book Thirteen Years Among the Wild Beast of India).
#PPA272,M1[/URL]"]
http://books.google.com/books?id=dyfs54y-LqgC&pg=PA266&lpg=PA266&dq=killer+tigers+india&source=web&ots=dROn7ZCUez&sig=XlDU3Fajym62nAEUBn2IlEuqxoE#PPA272,M1[/URL]
I am so sad about this because modern zoos have noble aspirations [captive breeding for release to the wild, endangered species egg and sperm banks, habitat preservation, rehabilitation of injured wildlife]but the zoo going public makes demands through buying tickets and memberships and they want no barriers in the way of their viewing.
Quoting myself
but I want to bump up this link because I do not want to make statements about tiger behavior without a source to back it up.
Tigers do indeed stalk for other reasons than just eating, especially tigress. This is but one source about tiger behavior. It will not let me cut and paste but I will quote some:
“Tigress are as a rule more viscous, sly and enterprising as also more ferocious when pushed to extremities.”
“ Though the belief that some tigers confine themselves entirely to human flesh is undoubtedly erroneous, a man is so much more easily overcome than any other animal that man-eaters frequently seize cow herders in preference to the cattle they are in charge of.”
“Tigers frequently astonish those most conversant with their ordinary habits by some erratic conduct, and is unsafe to condemn as untrue almost anything that might be related to their doings…. merely because it is unusual or unprecedented.”
This book was written by a tiger slayer for the Mysore Government [and has a colonial tone]. There are several passages that are just chilling knowing what we do about the SF attack.
I kept a jaguar that enjoyed regular visitors. I have no doubt the jaguar recognized these visitors as hers. They could call and carry on and she would rub, gurgle and roll around. When the visitors would start running back and forth she would leap around her enclosure in pursuit just like a domestic cat. One day I got the Communiqué from AZA and a jaguar had killed her keeper. It had bizarrely slipped through an narrow opening and killed her keeper instantly as she worked in the lock down area. I quit playing chasing games with her that day and instead had her focus on chasing toys. Didn’t want her to get out and think I wanted to be chased!
To understand the difficult position zoos are in one only has to read this thread. A tiger is a top predator- they show no mercy to any other animal humans included- that is their nature. A healthy, happy tiger is viscous and audacious. Tatiana was not only healthy but in the prime of her life mated with a suitable male fed regularly a well balanced diet with regular medical care. She was more on the top of her game than any wild tiger – so why are we surprised she was unpredictable [her nature], ferocious [her nature]?
The question we need to ask is what do we need to do to educate the public to still contribute to zoos [so they can save endangered and threatened wildlife] and visit even if we do have to put barriers between the public and animals. [They look “sad” caged even though the habitat inside is natural]. Why do we have to resort to entertainment measures to get an animal to “be active” so visitors will be pleased. Big cats lay around all day in the shade- get over it visitors! On the reverse a zoo that regularly fed [dead] goats to cats was slammed when visitors caught sight of the carcass being consumed. Not Disney enough to see a cat with it’s face buried in the gut of a goat – a much more naturalistic way of feeding then showing visitors the hand feeding a chunk of horsemeat.
I learned at an AZA conference in a session on cats that it is habit loss and predation by humans that is endangering cats. They breed freely and there is sufficient gene pool for most species but there is not many places to return them to the wild. So zoos work to preserve their habitat and educate the locals. But much as the wolf here in US it is those who don’t live where the predator roams that most want it returned to the wild. If many species were not in zoos and part of the Species Survival Plan there would be no hope.
:twocents:
