CALGARY – An intruder at the Calgary Zoo was in hospital Monday after he was mauled by a tiger minutes after sneaking up to the carnivore’s pen.
The motive behind the break-in stunt, which sent one man to hospital with serious injuries, remains a mystery.
Just after 1 a. m., a pair of 27-year-old men scaled the zoo’s 2.4-metre fence north of the west public gate. Inside, they hopped another one-metre fence designed to keep the public at a safe distance from the Siberian tiger enclosure.
While the man was standing in front of a second fence that keeps the cats secure, a two-year-old male tiger, Vitali, snared his arm through the wires, biting and swiping at him. The man’s friend managed to free him and the pair scrambled to safety.
The men called the cellphone of a friend who was working at the zoo as a security guard. She raced to their aid and took them to the security office, police and zoo officials say.
Within minutes, EMS rushed the injured man to Foothills Hospital with deep wounds to his arms that are "significant," zoo officials said Monday.
Police say criminal charges of break and enter, as well as trespassing, are pending.
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Police say there is no indication the woman, one of four patrolling the 32-hectare zoo grounds overnight, was part of the break-in caper.
"They were not let into the zoo," said acting Staff Sgt. Rick Halford.
"There’s no indication that the offender had made contact with the security officer prior to entering the zoo. I don’t think that was their intension to contact that person, I think it was just something they stumbled onto."
The motive for the reckless and dangerous stunt is unknown, but alcohol could be at the root of the lark.
"There’s no indication that the two offenders were involved in anything other than just being silly, I suppose," said Halford.
The victim, who suffered serious bite and claw injuries, remains in hospital. He was sedated and police did not had a chance to interview him after the attack.
Zookeepers say the tiger, "one of our most laid-back cats," was likely spooked by the intruders.
"Vitali did nothing wrong. It’s his natural behaviour. They broke into his home," said zookeeper Tim Sinclair-Smith.
The cat, who showed signs of being stressed following the break in, suffered no injuries to his paws or mouth and eventually calmed down.
"He’s perfectly fine. A tiger is a carnivore so they’re going to behave naturally and that’s his natural reaction," said Sinclair-Smith.
The tiger was either acting out of aggression or protecting himself, said Dr. Sandie Black, the zoo’s head vet.
"(The tiger) has a fairly significant armament at his disposal: very sharp claws. My guess would be that the gentleman was hooked by a claw and his arm dragged in and continued to be attacked from that point.
While zoo officials say they will be reviewing security, the incident appears hard to prevent.
"I think it’s fair to say that if anybody puts their mind to it, they can breach any kind of security. And that certainly seems to be the case here," said the zoo’s director Grahame Newton.
"This is one of those incidents, if somebody puts their mind to it, you can certainly breach the best security in the world. We don’t have to look any further than the Shell site of the oilsands to know that security can be breached and people can get in where they’re not supposed to be."
The tiger enclosure is surrounded by two fences. One of them is about a metre high, designed to keep the public from coming too close to the enclosure. Within two metres is another fence, designed to keep the tigers inside their exhibit area is 4.5 metres high, with a one metre overhang joined at a 90 degree angle to the top of the main fence. It has a four-strand, 120-volt hot wire, about 40 centimetres from the end of the overhang.
Vitali was spending the night outdoors, while females Kita, 14, and nine-year-old Katja were inside the building.
The tigers kept at the Calgary Zoo are Siberian Tigers that can be anywhere from three to 3.6 metres in length and weigh up to 306 kilograms, according to the zoo web-site. It is the largest cat species in the world.
Animal experts say these tigers are tremendous hunters and have the ability to leap up to 10 metres, although it usually jumps half that distance during regular activities. The animals are also known to fiercely defend their territories and food resources within those areas.
A similar incident happened in San Francisco just a week ago. On Sept. 26, a man got into a grizzly bear pen at the San Francisco Zoo, but was promptly spotted and removed. The man was uninjured in that incident.
Officials there credit new security measures implemented since a 2007 attack — by a Siberian Tiger — that killed one man and injured two others.
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Tiger Attacks At World Zoos
Dec. 25, 2007
A Siberian tiger escaped its grotto at the San Francisco Zoo and fatally mauled a man before police shot the animal.
Dec. 20, 2007
A man was mauled to death by two Bengal tigers while trying to take a photo of the animals through the bars at a zoo in northeast India.
May 10, 2007
A woman was killed by a Bengal tiger at her fiance’s private zoo near Kamloops, B. C. She was standing outside the tiger’s cage when the big cat lashed out.
Feb. 22, 2007
A six-year-old girl was mauled to death by a tiger at a zoo in China as she was being photographed with the animal. The tiger performed at the zoo with visitors.
Dec. 23, 2006
A 350-pound, three-year-old Siberian tiger attacked and injured its trainer at the San Francisco Zoo in front of at least 50 visitors.
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