Animal escape artists: what zoos must learn from Tatiana

Risk Management, April, 2008 by Si Hyun Kim

Despite the 22-foot-wide moat and 17-foot wall in its tiger exhibits and the 50 locks securing doors leading to the gorilla barn, Riverbanks Zoo officials are always on the lookout for a potential Tatiana. Even with such precautions, however, the possibility of another animal escape remains a reality. Worse yet, a careless person might even deliberately free a dangerous animal. As outlandish as such a scenario may seem, the discovery of a shoe and some blood inside Tatiana's enclosure has raised the terrifying possibility that someone aided a Siberian tiger escape.

The fact remains that no matter how many safety measures zoos take, accidents are bound to happen. So how will zoos respond if another Tatiana emerges from their exhibits? Employees at the Detroit Zoo have been actively preparing for the unthinkable. "[In addition] to the excellent relationships with local, state, and federal public safety and security agencies ... we have a trained emergency weapons team at the zoo," says Janeway. "Currently, a considerable professional discussion about safety and risk is happening within zoos across the country. M1 of us are very focused on continuing to ensure the well-being of both people and animals."

WHEN ANIMALS ATTACK

Tatiana is not the only violent captive animal to make headlines in recent years:

July 14, 2007: A zookeeper in the San Antonio Zoo suffers multiple bite wounds to the head from a 244-pound Sumatran tiger after he forgets to lock a series of gates before releasing the animal into the yard.

February 24, 2007: A zookeeper is fatally mauled after a 140-pound jaguar at the Denver Zoo gets into the employee access hallway through an open cage door. Officials report that the zookeeper failed to follow important safety protocols in forgetting to keep two locked doors between herself and the jaguar, and failing to visually locate the jaguar before opening an access door.

December 22, 2006: The National Zoo in Washington is locked down when a leopard is discovered missing from its wiremesh enclosure. Luckily, it is found sleeping near the exhibit half an hour later.

September 10, 2005: Three chimpanzees from Zoo Nebraska are shot and killed after they escape from their cage. A fourth chimp is safely returned to the enclosure shortly thereafter. The primates broke out of their cage by lifting a padlock that was not properly closed after cleaning.

March 18, 2004: Dallas is thrown into a scare after a 340-pound gorilla named Jabari escapes from his enclosure at the "Wilds of Africa" exhibit at the Dallas Zoo. The giant snatches a toddler with his teeth and attacks three other people before being shot and killed by police.

September 28, 2003: A 300-pound gorilla named Little Joe crosses a moat, scales a 12-foot wall lined with electric wires and breaks through two sets of doors to escape from his enclosure at Boston's Franklin Park zoo. A 2-year-old girl and a zoo employee suffer cuts and bruises when they are thrown and dragged across the ground. Remarkably, this was the second time in a matter of weeks that Little Joe got loose.