On Saturday 10 October, a visit to Yorkshire Wildlife Park, near Doncaster, ended in a fatal emergency. Shortly after 1.30pm, a man entered the tiger enclosure in the park’s Land of the Tigers area and was attacked. South Yorkshire Police said he was pronounced dead at the scene despite the best efforts of medical personnel. He has not been named. Police said their first reports came in at 1.35pm, while other outlets put the attack shortly after 1.30pm. Two land ambulances, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and a doctor were sent to the scene.
Visitors nearby describe a sudden and confusing scene. A woman named Alice told LADbible it was “very sudden”, with “a member of staff running around telling people to evacuate but wouldn’t say anything about why”. “It felt chaotic,” she said. Another witness, Tia Hanson, told The Star: “People are saying they heard a gunshot and they say someone either jumped in, or fell in.”
Videos circulating online, which police have asked people not to share, reportedly show visitors shouting at the tiger to distract it while staff fired several gunshots into the air. Other footage appeared to show a man inside the enclosure with a tiger pawing at him. The park was evacuated, and police said officers remained on scene carrying out enquiries.
The sources disagree on what the noises were. Alice reported that people near her were saying the tigers had been shot, while others said gas canisters had been used “to spook them into their enclosures”. LADbible’s report suggests the gunshot sounds may have been gas canisters and tranquilliser darts fired into the enclosure. The sources also differ on how the man got in. Alice relayed what people near her had said, that a young man had been seen climbing the fence and had “provoked the tigers which then retaliated”. That account is secondhand, and police have not confirmed it. Police said only that he entered the enclosure.
On the tiger, police said it “was uninjured and remained in the enclosure following the incident”. LADbible’s account says the animal eventually fled and hid nearby, and that a “black screen” was then put up around the enclosure. Both accounts say the tiger was not hurt.
Onlookers praised the keepers. An unnamed source told the Manchester Evening News: “From start to end the incident was over within minutes. The keepers did everything they could. It’s horrific.” The same source said the tiger was “absolutely fine” and described the barriers: “The barriers are huge.”
The park said in a Facebook statement: “We are deeply saddened by today’s tragic incident.” It stayed closed for the weekend.
The park has two Amur tigers, a male named Altai and a female named Tschuna. LADbible reported that Altai was the tiger involved. The park said: “Many, many people have contacted us about Altai, the tiger. We can reassure everyone that he is safe and well and will not be euthanised as a result of this incident.”
Tiger King star Carole Baskin told The New York Post that the tiger “was not doing anything wrong by being a tiger”. She added: “What we do know is that a tiger is a powerful wild predator, and no amount of captivity, training, or familiarity can change that.”
Amur tigers are an endangered subspecies, with around 500 left in the wild. The Land of the Tigers attraction opened in 2011 on a purpose-built two-acre reserve.
It is hard to read this without asking a bigger question. A tiger is a wild animal, however it was raised or fed. A zoo, however well built, is an artificial world for a predator that evolved for far larger territories. Visitors pay to stand close to animals that can kill, and then we are shocked when something goes wrong. Nobody should be cheering a man’s death, and the keepers deserve credit for acting fast. But whether we should keep animals like this behind fences for our entertainment deserves more scrutiny than one weekend’s headlines will give it.