Yorkshire Wildlife Park confirmed its Amur tiger will not be put down after mauling a man who voluntarily climbed into the enclosure and died at the scene.
A visitor who chose to enter a big-cat habitat at the park near Doncaster in northern England was mauled and died where he fell, while the rare Amur tiger named Altai stayed inside the enclosure uninjured, Breitbart reported.
Local police said the still-unnamed man died at the scene. Emergency crews were called after the incident was reported around 1:35 p.m. Saturday. On Sunday the park said Altai was “safe and well and will not be euthanised.”
The park remained closed. Officials offered specialist support to staff “who were deeply affected by events” and extended “thoughts and heartfelt sympathies” to the dead man’s family.
Visitor Marie Miller said she saw the man earlier the same day, still outside the danger zone and acting like any other guest.
“The man who I saw on the bridge with his earpods in dancing was happily enjoying seeing the tiger,”
Miller wrote on Facebook, as carried in the coverage. She added that he asked a stranger to photograph him with the tiger in the background.
Ella Ford, 24, from Wirral, told the BBC she watched what came next. She said the man climbed the barriers, jumped in, crawled in front of the tiger where it was perched, and lay there. When he shouted for help, the tiger grabbed hold of him.
“He jumped in and crawled in front of the tiger, where the tiger was perched and just lay there.”
No motive for the entry appears in the public accounts. Police confirmed only that the tiger was not hurt and never left the enclosure.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park’s Sunday statement put the outcome in plain terms: Altai lives. The rare Amur tiger did what a large predator does when a person closes the distance inside its space. The park did not punish the animal for a human decision.
Dr Campbell Murn, a former member of the government’s zoo expert committee and a lecturer at the University of Reading, told the BBC that determined people can still breach modern enclosures.
“I view it in the same way a determined thief will get into somebody’s house or somebody’s car and despite the best security systems and enclosures sometimes these things happen.”
Murn also described the core trade-off zoos accept: give visitors a real wildlife experience while holding a safety distance that is firm without turning the grounds into a fortress.
“One of the fundamental approaches of a modern zoo is to give people a wildlife experience and keep them safe so they can learn and they can enjoy being near the animals, but keeping a safety distance that is relevant but not making it too heavy handed.”
Barriers exist for a reason. When someone climbs them, jumps in, and places himself in front of a tiger, the risk is no longer theoretical.
Personal choice has consequences. A tiger that stays in its enclosure is not the party that needs to answer for that choice.
