Zookeepers attempt tough balancing act with unpredictable animals and visitors

SAN FRANCISCO — It was any zoo's worst nightmare.

Shortly after 5 p.m. on Christmas Day, San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo received a call at home: Tigers are on the loose and somebody may have been hurt.

"At first I thought it was a practical or sick joke," he recalled in an interview. "But I took it seriously and grabbed my jacket and got in the car and drove to the zoo."

Soon, the gravity of the situation became all too clear. A Siberian tiger had somehow vaulted from her enclosure, fatally mauling 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. and injuring his two friends.

But other circumstances intensified the horror. The escape took place shortly before dark in a park laced with curving paths and thick stands of foliage. And there was no public address system to alert the few patrons meandering through the zoo.

A placid holiday afternoon had turned frightening and chaotic, with officers uncertain of such basic facts as how many tigers were on the loose. By the time order was restored, the entire zoo had been declared a crime scene and the institution had earned the grim distinction of being the first accredited zoo in the United States in which a visitor was killed by an escaped animal.

"It was almost surreal, the tragedy and emotions that overwhelmed me," Mollinedo said. "It boggled my mind, and my staff was shellshocked."

The incident cast a harsh light on the balancing act that challenges zookeepers everywhere: Keep visitors -- who can be unpredictable and dangerous -- close to, yet at a safe distance from wild animals, who can be equally unpredictable and dangerous.

Zoos and zoo-goers throughout the U.S. are watching the tragedy closely.

"Many of our members are refreshing themselves on safety procedures, reassuring the public that their zoos are safe," said Steven Feldman, a spokesman for the Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums, a zoo accrediting body. "When we learn the full set of facts from this incident, we can make judgments about whether changes should be made in San Francisco or elsewhere."

Much of what happened in San Francisco is still subject to speculation. But investigators are examining the possibility that Sousa and his friends provoked the tiger, a 4-year-old, 350-pound female named Tatiana, which was later fatally shot.

"Police are looking at a 9-inch rock and pine cones and . . . branches or sticks that would not normally be in the tiger's enclosure," said Sam Singer, a zoo public relations consultant. "They're trying to determine how they got there."