Tiger at the San Francisco Zoo

Posted on December 26, 2007 in Disasters Zoos

At the San Francisco Zoo, it’s our mission to connect people with wildlife, inspire caring for nature and advance conservation action.

The [[San Francisco Zoo]] had been a sad place for a long time, in my opinion, the cages woefully out of date and the number of animals forever dwindling. Cold fogs blew in off the Pacific, right across the street, making it hardly the habitation for anything other than musk ox — which disappeared in favor of an out of place African veldt exhibit.

I’d often wondered about the pits that kept the lions and tigers and bears away from the general public. One by one they emptied and nothing was ever put back in them. Tatiana, the killer tiger, lived in a gray moated enclosure. You trusted that pit, assumed that it would keep its inmates inside, away from your succulent limbs. You also hoped that the zookeepers kept their charges fed. Some years ago, they used to feed them inside the lion house. It was a shocking show: lions and tigers roared at the top of their lungs while keepers tossed haunches of meat to them. The large room shook as the beasts waited their turn. I could never spend more than a minute or two in their carnivorous presences.

The Terrace Cafe, where they shot the beast down, is about a three to five minute walk from the moats. I can imagine the staff locking the doors, staring out the window as San Francisco police officers emptied their .40 pistols at the monster.

Last year, you may have heard, this same tiger mauled a keeper’s arm. Cal-OSHA cited the zoo for a faulty cage design, but nothing was said about the tiger or the dangerous disrespect she had shown. It surprises me that she had not been put down then. But we are speaking of a rare beast and I don’t doubt that the rarity of her kind in the wild influenced the decision to let her live.

Incidentally, I used to go to an endodontist who assisted in performing root canals on lions, tigers, leopards, and babboons at the zoo, a plaudit that he advertised via a photo album in his lobby. They used a regular 1/4″ drill bit and lots of anesthestic to keep the creatures comfortable and the dentists safe. I used to attest to his skill by pointing out that none of his patients had ever killed him.

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I had an odd experience with a tiger once at the Los Angeles Zoo. My niece and I were hunting for the animal. We went up to a side window. The tiger came right up and uttered a deep throated “meow” or chuff. Who was he talking to, her or me?

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Web Links:

• This Silicon Valley Mom was at the Zoo yesterday
• San Francisco Zoo
• [[Siberian Tiger]] – Wickipedia
• The San Francisco Chronicle
• The Guardian
• Inside Bay Area (San Mateo County Times)
• San Jose Mercury News – Zoo is a crime scene
• ABC News – Third attack this month
• Los Angeles Times – How did it get out?
• Associated Press – List of Maulings by Captive Animals

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I’m betting that these guys had been teasing her.

[tags]tiger, tigers, Tatiana the Tiger, zoo, San Francisco, San Francisco Zoo, Bay Area, San Francisco Bay Area, California, Northern California, disasters, zoos, Siberian tiger, conservation[/tags]