Zoo attack: Experts wonder if tiger got out on its own

SAN FRANCISCO — If a Siberian tiger escaped on its own to fatally maul a teenager at the San Francisco Zoo, it would be a feat that reshapes what is known about the animal.

"They don't jump very high, and they don't jump very far," said Ron Tilson, one of the nation's top tiger authorities who helped write the guidelines on how to safely restrain and care for zoo tigers.

"Think of a sumo wrestler" — much too massive for leaping — and that's the tiger, said Tilson, director of conservation at the Minnesota Zoo.

While Tilson is trying to keep an open mind about early accounts that suggested the tiger somehow crossed a wide moat and a tall fence, "something about this is just contrary to too much history" of observed tiger behavior, he said.

He spoke on a day the big-cat exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo was cordoned off as a crime scene as investigators tried to determine whether the 300-pound Siberian tiger that killed the teenager escaped from its high-walled pen on its own or got help from someone, inadvertent or otherwise.

Police shot the animal, Tatiana, to death after a Christmas Day rampage that began when the tiger escaped from an enclosure surrounded by what zoo officials said are an 18-foot wall and a 20-foot moat. Two brothers who also were visiting the zoo were severely mauled about 300 yards away, in front of the zoo cafe.

Police Chief Heather Fong said the department has opened a criminal investigation to "determine if there was human involvement in the tiger getting out, or if the tiger was able to get out on its own."

The dead visitor was identified as Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, of San Jose.

The two injured men, 19- and 23-year-old brothers from San Jose, were upgraded to stable condition Wednesday at San Francisco General Hospital after surgery. They had deep bites and claw wounds on their heads, necks, arms and hands, said Dr. Rochelle Dicker. She said they were expected to recover fully.

One zoo official insisted the tiger did not get out through an open door and must have climbed or leaped out. But Jack Hanna, former director of the Columbus Zoo and a frequent guest on TV, said such a leap would be "virtually impossible."

"There's something going on here. It just doesn't feel right to me," he said. "It just doesn't add up to me."

Instead, he speculated visitors might have been fooling around and might have taunted the animal and perhaps helped it get out by, say, putting a board in the moat.

Sy Montgomery, a naturalist and author whose books include "Spell of the Tiger," said she thinks such a jump is possible. Not every tiger could do it, she said, "but like human beings, every creature has its own amazing athletes."

The police chief would not comment on whether the animal was taunted.

Tatiana ripped the flesh off a zookeeper's arm just before Christmas a year ago while the woman was feeding the animal through the bars. A state investigation faulted the zoo, which installed better equipment at the Lion House, where the big cats are kept.

Zoo director Manuel Mollinedo said Wednesday that he gave no thought to destroying Tatiana after the 2006 incident, because "the tiger was acting as a normal tiger does."

It was unclear how long Tatiana had been loose before she was killed. The three visitors were attacked around closing time Tuesday. Four officers hunted down and shot the animal after police got a 911 call from a zoo employee.

The zoo's director of animal care and conservation, Robert Jenkins, said the tiger did not leave through an open door. "The animal appears to have climbed or otherwise leaped out of the enclosure," he said.

The zoo was closed Wednesday. Officials said they expected to reopen today.

Material from The Sacramento Bee, The Associated Press and San Jose Mercury News is included in this report.