The Mandelbear's Musings

Following chaoswolf's suggestion of a couple of days ago, we went to the zoo this morning. Got there a little before noon, and got home about 3:30.

By the time we got there, the main lot was full to the brim, but the handicapped spots around the corner on Sloat were still available. Long walk, though. I hadn't wanted to drop off Colleen and the girls because I didn't know at the time whether there would be parking at all. Next time, I think, we'll leave after lunch and plan on arriving around 2:00 -- there were plenty of places in the main lot by then, and it'll be cheaper if we don't have to buy lunch.

I grumped about the lack of adequate handicapped parking in Member Services, and they gave me a parking ticket so I could drive around and pick up Colleen on the way home. We rented a wheelchair, having discovered on the trip home from FKO what a difference it makes.

Colleen kept apologizing for the extra work she was putting me through, but I was enjoying myself thoroughly. Not only was I able to stay with her the whole time without any extra effort (it's a real strain to slow myself down to her walking pace, and frustrating for both of us), I got a pretty darned good workout to boot.

The zoo was full of "respect the animals" and "please be quiet" signs, and the large cat and bear enclosures all had new glass fences. For obvious reasons. The new fences replace what used to be a pair of railings with a strip of plants in between; they'll be lower maintenance and let you get right up to the edge of the moat and look down. Cool! There's also a little bench built into the concrete footing; probably intended for kids to stand on, but a tired grown-up can sit there, and I saw several doing just that.

I miss the elephants and the pigmy hippo. *sigh* The baby giraffe was cute, though. And it was the first time in the more than three decades I've been going that I saw a warthog standing up where I could see it clearly. I hadn't realized how shaggy they are. And the two grizzly bears sleepily snuggled up next to the window were cute as heck, too.

We'll probably get the flower_cat a wheelchair -- it'll come in handy. It cost us $10 to rent; that will add up, and of course there are plenty of places where you simply can't rent one. The San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, for example, and the Los Gatos Creek bike trail.

It took a while for it to show up on the web, but the Merc this morning had a dimensioned drawing of Tatiana's enclosure in an article titled "Wall of tiger's S.F. Zoo pen too short". added 11:03 They also have a very good article written this afternoon, with a lot of detail about what actually went on.

The Wikipedia article now has a particularly nice picture (on the left, linked to larger version).

There's the usual collection of newspaper articles: TheStar [Toronto Zoo officials say their fence is higher] ABC News ["Natural Born Killers"] Herald Sun San Francisco Chronicle [there was an "Emergency Procedures" manual -- guess what didn't happen in all the confusion], the Merc ["A San Francisco Zoo employee who called 911 during the Christmas Day tiger attack told a dispatcher that a very agitated male was claiming to have been bitten by an animal, but the employee initially didn't believe him, according to communication police released this afternoon."] Not surprising, really.

This Associated Press article concentrates on the possible financial liability. This Reuters article quotes the person responsible for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' 16 foot height recommendation: "I've seen tigers, big male tigers, reach up to 12 feet high," said Tilson, also the Minnesota Zoo's conservation director. (added 11:33pm Here's an article on Tilson in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.) There are a few more details on the victims and the sequence of events at CTV.ca. The brothers Dhaliwal should be out of the hospital in time for their court date on charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest. The dead teen, Carlos Sousa Jr., was apparently trying to distract Tatiana from her initial attack on the older brother. He succeeded, but...

And just before posting, The Times has an article about the shoe print found on the fence. It may be a few more days before we learn the results of the "forensic analysis".

The San Francisco Chronicle, as one might expect, has the most detailed write-up:

San Francisco police are investigating the possibility that one of the victims in the fatal tiger mauling on Christmas Day climbed over a waist-high fence and then dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of a moat that kept the big cat away from the public, sources close to the investigation said Wednesday.

The minimal evidence found at the scene included a shoe and blood in an area between the gate and the edge of the 25- to 30-foot-wide moat, raising questions about what role, if any, the victims might have had in accidentally helping the animal escape.

The three victims, all young men from San Jose, were visiting the zoo together. They were all present just outside the tiger's grotto when the tiger escaped, killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. with a savage slash to the throat, and injured the other two. The names of the survivors, who are brothers ages 19 and 23, have not been released.

The injured victims fled, leaving a trail of blood, which police believe the tiger followed for 300 yards up a zoo pathway. As the tiger cornered and attacked one of the brothers, four police officers arrived, distracted the animal and shot it dead.

[...]

Zoo director Manuel Mollinedo said it was also likely that the animal was provoked.

"Somebody created a situation that really agitated her and gave her some sort of a method to break out," Mollinedo said. "There is no possible way the cat could have made it out of there in a single leap. I would surmise that there was help.

"A couple of feet dangling over the edge could possibly have done it."

Sources said pinecones and sticks that were found in the moat might have been thrown at the animal. Those items could not have landed in the grotto naturally, they said.

However, police Sgt. Neville Gittens maintained that there was no reason to think that the victims were taunting the tiger.

One wonders what Sgt. Gittens has been smoking. For that matter, one wonders what the kids had been smoking. I probably ought to stop calling them "victims" now -- as far as I can tell the only innocent victim in this story is Tatania.

Additional articles in the Chron are here, [editorial] here, here [Outrage at City Hall], and here. The opening quote in the latter article just about sums it up:

"She was everything that a tiger is supposed to be," said big-cat expert Ronald Tilson. "She was essentially shot and killed for being a tiger."

It also recounts an alleged incident in 1997 where the tiger leaped across the moat and got a paw onto the dirt on the other side before slipping off. Not verified, at this point, but a leg over the side could have been all the help she needed.

More news: LA Times, BBC, Times Online, Seattle Times, Star-Telegram [has map], NY Times [points out that New Yorkers are in much more danger from neighbors with exotic pets]:

While tigers kept in zoos are typically well secured, there are other settings in which the animals have been a menace, or worse. In October 2003, Roy Horn of the magic and tiger-training team of Siegfried and Roy was mauled by a 400-pound white tiger during a show in Las Vegas. Mr. Horn had worked with the tiger for years, but is still undergoing rehabilitation and walks with a cane.

Just a day after the attack on Mr. Horn, New Yorkers had their own walk on the wild side when a 400-pound Bengal tiger and a five-foot-long caiman were discovered in an apartment in Harlem.

The police were alerted after the owner of the apartment, Antoine Yates, called to say he had been bitten by a pit bull. When they arrived, officers talked to neighbors who complained about large amounts of urine and a strong smell coming from the apartment.

To subdue the tiger, a police sniper rappelled down the side of the building and, as the tiger roared in the background, fired tranquilizer darts through an open fifth-floor window.

Keeping tigers in such confined spaces might be rare, and even cruel, but plenty of Americans feel comfortable keeping these animals in their backyards. Several years ago, there were more tigers in private hands in Texas than in all the nation's accredited zoos, according to Palmer Krantz III, the chairman of the board at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Stupid primates, indeed.

There are more news articles today; most are highly predictable bits of sensationalism, but a few are worth reading. ABC News has a bit on the victims' condition (critical but stable). And the San Francisco Chronicle comes through with a bit from the OSHA report on Tatiana's attack on a keeper last year:

On Dec. 22, 2006, the 350-pound Tatiana chewed the flesh off Lori Komejan's arm during a public feeding demonstration. A state investigation later ruled that the zoo was at fault for the attack because of the way the cages were configured.

A June report from the state Division of Occupation Safety and Health blamed the San Francisco Zoo for the 2006 attack, stating that the tiger cages were configured in a way that made it possible for Tatiana to bite the zookeeper's arm. The state found that Komejan was attacked after she reached through a drain trough to retrieve an item near the tiger's side of the cage. The tiger reached under the cage bars and grabbed her right arm, but the zookeeper tried to push the tiger away using her other arm, the report found.

Both of her arms were under the cage at that point and her face was pressed against the cage bars, according to the report. Another employee grabbed a long-handled squeegee and hit the tiger in the head until it released the injured zookeeper.

So let me get this straight: it's feeding time, and she puts both arms into the cage with the hungry tiger. And people are blaming the cage design and the tiger?

When it's all over, I think we'll find that Tatiana's tragedy is less about vicious, wild felines than it is about stupid primates.

Woke the family around 9am (after I'd already had spicy tofu for breakfast, unloaded the dishwasher, put some pots to soak, and read Stretching and my morning web pages), made sure everyone had a bit of breakfast, and headed up to the San Francisco Zoo. We got there about 11:30 and split up, agreeing to meet at 12:30 for lunch at the Leaping Lemur Cafe. It was a good day for it -- warm but not hot.

The flower_cat and I headed off to the African Trail and the gorilla exhibit, with the Y.D. in tow. She left us at the Primate Center while the Cat parked herself at the cafe for a while and I wandered through the lemur area and the upper level of the primate center (which I hadn't realized were connected) at more like my typical pace. I like walking with my Cat, but she's arthritic and can't walk fast enough for me to get any exercise.

After lunch we split up again; the Cat and I toddled off to see the penguins, the otters the hippo (in temporary quarters near what used to be the elephant house, but is now occupied by a rhino), the big cats, the black rhinos, and the bears. The zoo is in the middle of a decade or so of major reconstruction; the grizzlies have been moved to a great new "Grizzly Gulch" next to the black rhinos, and the entire back area that used to hold the African elephant, giraffes, and hippos, and others is fenced off and under construction. The giraffes have already been moved to the new African Trail area, and the few remaining elephants have all been moved to a "retirement home" somewhere else. We don't really have enough room in San Francisco to take proper care of elephants.

We'd aggreed to meet back at the Leaping Lemur at 3:00, but converged about half an hour early and headed for the exit. I drove home fighting sleep; the Cat and I collapsed in a heap on the bed and napped for an hour. Leftovers for dinner; we all agreed that an expedition to the local Mongolian Barbecue was best left for tomorrow.

I've spent the last few hours working on the grand directory tree reorganization, re-organizing (but not yet editing) the OVFF recordings, and trying to pull together a setlist for Loscon. So I'm actually making some progress.