The 4-year-old Siberian tiger named Tatiana that killed one San Francisco Zoo visitor and injured two others on Christmas Day was acting just as a tiger normally would act, big-cat expert Ronald Tilson told the San Francisco Chronicle.
“She was essentially shot and killed for being a tiger,” he said, and added that Tatiana’s behavior after she escaped was typical of her species.
“She was an alpha predator in her environment,” he said. “She was killing mammals and eating meat. Anything they perceive as a danger they’re going to strike at. That’s their instinct. If everyone would stand perfectly still and not make any movement, the cat wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
Last December, when Tatiana mauled a zookeeper’s arm as she conducted a public feeding demonstration, the zoo’s executive director agreed that she was acting like a tiger and never considered euthanizing her. An investigation later determined the zoo was at fault for improper cage configuration.
Tatiana was born in captivity at the Denver Zoo in 2003 and donated to the San Francisco Zoo in 2005. The investigation continues as to how Tatiana escaped, but recent reports state that her enclosure was several feet shorter than originally reported and below national standards, which may have contributed to her escape. In addition, police found a shoe and blood in the tiger’s enclosure and are investigating whether the big cat may have been taunted.