Honolulu tiger wanders out of its cage
What is it with tigers on the loose these days?
A 245-pound Sumatra tiger wandered off from its cage at the Honolulu Zoo just before opening Thursday, the Associated Press reports.
The tiger apparently scooted past a volunteer who quickly secured a gate to keep the tiger from heading out to a public area. Zoo workers then coaxed the tiger, 8-year-old Berani, back into his cage.
The AP reports that officials are reviewing procedures for keeping the tiger in its cage and said the gate wasn’t latched after the cage had been cleaned.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco Zoo’s big cat exhibit reopened Thursday with higher walls, new barriers and electrified wires to keep animals from escaping. This almost two months after a female Siberian tiger, Tatiana, escaped from her area and killed a teen and injured two others on Christmas Day.
The exhibit returned Thursday with four lions and four tigers, and feeding demonstrations at 2 p.m. also have resumed.
So what did zoo officials do with the cats while they were in seclusion? Gave them bales of hay — scented with “spices, perfumes or urine from other animals” — to play with. And they wheeled in a TV so the big cats could watch the movie “The Lion King” as well as other nature and wildlife films.
— Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
[Photo: Tony, a Siberian tiger at the San Francisco Zoo, on Thursday / by Justin Sullivan, Getty Images]
3 Comments on “Honolulu tiger wanders out of its cage”
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February 24th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
@#!%ing zoos
tigers should be in the wild in India, China, Russia, Siberia and Indonesia, with miles of territory hunting freely and without twenty bazillion people staring at them all the time. if we introduced all the 10,000 tigers in the u.s. back into the wild, we may have at least a few being able to survive and bringing up the population. India has only about one thousand four hundred tigers
February 24th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Tigers would be in the wild if there weren’t people poaching them or destroying their habitat. And if we did introduce all the tigers in the zoos back into the wild, they would probably starve to death. That’s a great idea, you really thought that one through. Maybe if humans would stop destroying their habitat they could be in the wild. Until their habitat is restored, tigers will keep disappearing. Zoos are educating people about these beautiful animals so they will want to help save them. Zoos are also preserving the species by breeding them under the Species Survival Plan. I think you should do some research about what else zoos do other than have “twenty bazillion people stare” at the animals.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Marie I think you should do more research on releasing captive tigers and the space they have to live. Recently there was a tiger specialist, david salmoni, who was able to release two tiger siblings into the wild. It is difficult and hard, but if you spend the time, it is possible. They were released into south africa, but at least we have another temporary place for tigers to live. And thought the sundarbans is the only really self sustainable tiger habitat many reserves have the abilit to hold more. If India and other countries can get tiger protection forces in reserves and China, and fund adequetly the future of tigers is there. We also need to stop paper and logging companies form taking woods. How would you like to sit in a larg enclosure all day instead of freely in a huge square mile territory? It educates, but if people saw them in the wild their beauty is much more.