Brookfield Zoo has reassigned the supervisory keepers who had been in charge of its tigers after two Amur tiger cubs were maimed, with the male cub dying over the weekend.
“There were staffing changes made in the supervisory positions on Friday” because of the Sept. 27 mauling, Amy Walgren, the zoo’s senior vice president for marketing and communications, said Monday.
Though Walgren did not confirm it, a zoo spokeswoman said earlier that three keepers who had cared for the tigers were assigned to other parts of the zoo.
The changes came after the zoo completed its own investigation Friday, concluding the cubs were injured because of “a questionable staff evaluation” of safety arrangements in their off-view habitat.
The cubs, a male and female born at the zoo May 25, were given access to an indoor area where there was a gate opening just large enough to allow the male cub to stick a paw directly into quarters housing their father, a 13-year-old Amur tiger.
The father, which in the wild would have no recognition of its offspring and no part in raising them, apparently bit off the male cub’s right front leg up to its elbow. The cubs’ 12-year-old mother, Tiara, frantic to pull the youngsters away from the father, chomped so hard that she amputated large parts of their tails.
Zoo veterinarians Sunday operated on the male cub to further treat his injuries, but the cub died while coming out of anesthesia. The exact cause of death has not been determined, the zoo said in a public statement.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s investigation of the mauling cited the zoo for “an inadequate separation of the tigers,” the zoo said in a news release Sunday.
Brookfield officials said the zoo is implementing significant changes in its animal housing policy, training and staffing because of the incident.
Walgren said she could not reveal the positions or names of the reassigned personnel because of confidentiality concerns.
The female cub, who lost three-fourths of her tail as her mother tried to pull her away from the gate, apparently was only a bystander to the attack. She is recovering in the zoo hospital and veterinarians are “cautiously optimistic” about her recovery, zoo officials said. The loss of her tail should not seriously hamper her in later life, they said.
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