Analysis of tiger taunting: Not uncommon at U.S. zoos [View All]

[cboy4]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080119/ap_on_re_us/tiger_attacks_29

By LISA LEFF and TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - Police believe the three people mauled by a tiger yelled and waved at the cat from atop a railing before it lunged at them, but experts say that's only a notch up from the type of taunting animals regularly endure at the nation's zoos.

One study concluded that as many as one in four zoo visitors razz the animals in some way, and large predators like tigers are a prime target. :grr:

Paul Dhaliwal, one of the two surviving victims, told the father of the teenager killed in the Christmas Day attack that while the three climbed the 3-foot-tall railing and tried to get the tiger's attention, they never threw or dangled anything into the pen, according to a search warrant affidavit filed late Thursday.

Dhaliwal, 19, was severely injured when the 250-pound Siberian tiger named Tatiana clawed its way up the wall of its enclosure, leapt out and mauled him. His brother, Kulbir, 24, was also injured, and their friend, 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr., was killed.