A man was mauled to death by an Amur tiger at Yorkshire Wildlife Park last Saturday, marking the UK's third death by a tiger in thirteen years. The incident is the only animal attack to have killed a person in a British zoo in the last twenty years.
Shortly before 1.30pm, William Chapman entered the tiger enclosure and appeared to try to communicate with the endangered tiger, named Altai. Eyewitnesses tried to distract the cat, but could not stop it from attacking. Warning shots were fired to scare the tiger away, but it was too late and the man was pronounced dead at the scene. Altai will not be put down.
Steve Irwin and the Stingray
Famous television presenter and conservationist Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray in a freak accident while filming a new show in 2006. During a break in filming, Irwin went snorkeling in the shallows of the Great Barrier Reef to get footage for his daughters' upcoming television show. A stingray stung Irwin in the heart, causing massive trauma, and he was pronounced dead shortly after.
Grizzly Man and Harambe
Timothy Treadwell, also known as Grizzly Man, was an American bear enthusiast killed and eaten by a grizzly bear in 2003 after spending much of his life in the Alaskan wilderness. The US National Park Service had expressed concerns about him harassing animals and running tours without a license. During one expedition, he was mauled and eaten by bears alongside his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard.
In 2016, a gorilla named Harambe was shot dead after a four-year-old boy climbed through a barrier and fell into the enclosure at Cincinnati Zoo. The boy fell around 10ft into a moat, and Harambe grabbed the child by the leg and dragged him through the water. Zoo staff shot the gorilla, and the child was rescued with no major injury.
Tilikum and Travis the Chimp
Tilikum was a killer whale captured in Iceland in 1983, later housed at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. The whale was linked to three of the four recorded fatal attacks on humans by orcas, including killing two trainers, Keltie Lee Byrne and Dawn Brancheau, by dragging them underwater. Tilikum was also involved in the death of Daniel P. Dukes, a 27-year-old man who broke into SeaWorld on 6 July 1999 and was found dead the following morning.
Travis was a chimpanzee who attacked a woman in Connecticut while high on Xanax, leaving her permanently blind. Born in 1995, Travis lived with Sandra and Jerome Herold, who bought him for $50,000. One afternoon, Travis escaped, and when Sandra's friend Charla Nash held his favourite Elmo doll, Travis flew into a rage, savaged her, and began to eat her face.
