Photo By Marieke Kuijpers
Two Siberian tigers killed in less than a week at two different zoos…what the heck’s going on here? There’s only like 400 in the world as it is. Like mountain gorillas, they’re on the severely endangered list. So why have two purposely been killed recently?
Let’s take a look.
The Slaughter in China Leads to Discoveries of Tiger Neglect
On Thursday December 20th a female Siberian tiger was found beheaded and skinned at the Three Gorges Forest Wild Animal World in a province of Yichang City, China.
They’re still not sure what happened, but investigators suspect the tiger was first tranquilized (four tranquilizer guns were found at the scene), then dragged from the cage and skinned.
Lovely.
Why?
They’re not sure, but in China tiger parts are revered for their medicinal purposes. They think that might have something to do with it.
The zoo was closed following the slaughter, but investigations revealed seven other tigers had also died in the zoo’s care prior to this one. Three tigers died of starvation in 2003, four other died of injuries received during fights or sicknesses. Then they also found two tiger cubs in the zoo’s refrigerator.
None of the other tiger deaths were reported until officials started investigating the murder on December 20th.
Sad.
Tiger Escapes, Mauls Three, Killing One
This one’s getting more airtime than the tiger murder I mentioned above. Of course it is. It’s more sensational when a tiger kills a man, as pathetic as that is…
Anyway, the female Siberian Tiger got loose at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day and attacked three men, killing one of them.
When police arrived they found the tiger sitting by one of the victims and killed it. (It’s not clear if they felt threatened it was preparing to attack them or if they felt it was going to attack the victim again. I read conflicting reports about that part.)
At any rate, another Siberian tiger’s dead and another investigation is under way. This time to determine how the tiger got out of its enclosure in the first place.
Maybe she heard about the fate of her sister tiger half way around the world and was mad about it?
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