Killer tiger 'may have been freed on purpose'

The big cat exhibit at San Francisco Zoo was cordoned off as a crime scene today as investigators probed whether a 21-stone Siberian tiger that killed a visitor escaped from its high-walled pen on its own, or was let out deliberately.

Police shot the animal on Tuesday after a rampage that began when the tiger escaped from an enclosure surrounded by what zoo chiefs said were an 18ft wall and a 20ft moat. Two brothers who were also visiting the zoo were severely mauled.

The dead visitor was identified as 17-year-old Carlos Sousa from San Jose.

The two injured men, 19 and 23-year-old brothers from San Jose, were in a stable condition at San Francisco General Hospital after surgery. They suffered deep bites and claw wounds on their heads, necks, arms and hands.

Mr Sousa's parents, Carlos and Marilza, choked back tears as they described their shock over their son's death.

“I wish I was sleeping and this was just a bad dream, but it’s not,” Mrs Sousa said at her San Jose home.

The couple said they learned of their son’s death from the coroner’s office, and neither police nor zoo officials had contacted them.

“They didn’t call, like we lost a dog or a cat. But we do have questions. How did this happen? This isn’t the first time, either,” Mrs Sousa said.

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”.

Police said they have not ruled anything out, including whether the escape was the result of carelessness or a deliberate act.

Ms Fong said officers were gathering evidence from the tiger’s enclosure as well as accounts from witnesses and others to the Christmas Day incident.

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 an unbelievable feat, and “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 that visitors might have taunted the animal and perhaps even helped it get out by, for instance, putting a board in the moat.

Ron Magill, a spokesman at the Miami Metro Zoo, said it was unlikely a zoo tiger could make such a leap, even with a running start.

“Captive tigers aren’t nearly in the kind of shape that wild tigers have to be in to survive,” he said. He said taunting could definitely make an animal more aggressive, but “whether it makes it more likely to get out of an exhibit is purely speculative”.

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

The same tiger, a four-year-old female named 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 blamed the zoo, which installed better equipment at the Lion House, where the big cats are kept.

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

Asked whether Tatiana showed any warning signs before Tuesday’s attack, Mr Mollinedo said: “She seemed to be very well-adjusted into that exhibit.”

It was unclear how long the tiger had been loose before it was killed. The three visitors were attacked at around closing time on the 125-acre zoo grounds. Four officers hunted down and shot the animal after police got an emergency call from a zoo employee.

The zoo has a response team that can shoot animals. But zoo officials and police described the initial moments after the escape as chaotic.

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. But he admitted: “We’re still not too clear as to exactly what transpired.”

The first attack happened outside the tiger’s enclosure – the victim died at the scene. Another was about 300 yards away, in front of the zoo café.

The police chief said the animal was mauling the man, and when officers yelled at it, it turned towards them and they opened fire. Only then did they see the third victim.

About 20 visitors were in the zoo when the attacks happened about an hour before the 6pm closing time, officials said. Employees and visitors were told to take shelter when zoo officials learned of the attacks, and some employees locked themselves inside buildings as they had been instructed to do if an animal escaped.

There were five tigers at the zoo – three Sumatrans and two Siberians.

The zoo was closed yesterday. Officials said they expected to reopen today, but the big cat exhibit would remain closed.