Some news reports are saying that the teenagers were, perhaps, taunting the tiger that attacked them. How does one taunt a tiger? How does a tiger know whether you are taunting it or praising it?
Maybe something like this:
The behavioral signals for aggression are sufficiently similar among mammal species that they are frequently understandable interspecifically. Making loud hooting or barking sounds is likely to be understood as a challenge by many species. Running back and forth or jumping up and down may trigger pursuit behavior in a predator. Since in this case immediate attack would have been prevented by the wall and moat, the tiger may have become increasingly frustrated until it finally became so excited it was willing to leap over them.
If they were approaching the enclosure, or if they actually broke the barrier, then the tiger would have seen them as invading her territory. You don’t invade a tiger’s territory.
I’m not saying the teenagers did that, but I think it would be pretty easy to provoke an animal confined in a small space. Whatever lengths the zoo may have gone thru to make the habitat “natural”, it would cover an area only a tiny fraction of what a tiger’s range would be in the wild.
I heard from one news source that the boys were found with sling shots in their pockets.
Some reports said that sticks and pine cones were found in tigers enclosure. I guess getting hit in the head with pine cone is taunt understood interspecies (sp?).
Yo momma is so fat when she sits around the cage, she sits AROUND the cage.
You mama is so old her SSN (sub-Saharan Number) is 1.
Sticks and cones will break my bones, but your incisors will *really * hurt me.
I understand that this isn’t the Pit, but… what fuckers. A member of a critically endangered population is dead now, and I don’t mean the teenager. :mad:
However, the fact that this animal had previously discovered that humans are slow and squishy is not a point in her favor.
If you show your teeth to a tiger, it’s not the tiger’s fault that it knows how big they are.
Every thing was going just fine until they put the tiger down.
Irrespective of whether thay “Taunted” the tiger or not, the zoo is at fault for allowing the tigers to live in an enclosure in which it was possible for them to escape. I don’t care if they were rubbing prime rib roasts on their bellies and screaming “EAT ME! EAT ME!” This should not have happened and the kid who died did not deserve his fate. Someone fucked up. This is basic, fundamental safety practice; the event should not have been physically possible.
Tigers don’t need a lot of taunting. They are aggressive, unpredictable, and perceive humans as prey.
A few years back I was at the Toronto Zoo, looking at the Siberian tigers. Lovely creatures. Their enclosure is open on two sides, a viewing platform and a walkway guarded by a very heavy 20-foot chain fence. As we were watching from the platform, a family walked by the fence with three little kids. One of the little girls dropped something, stepped back and away from her parents to get it… and the male tiger charged her.
I am telling you, I would not have believed something that big could move that fast. A Siberian tom weighs about 500 pounds, but he made not a sound and cleared sixty yards in what looked like the blink of an eye. The speed, and quickness, and grace were not to be beleived; you can read about it and see it on nature shows but when you see it live you can hardl;y believe you saw what you saw. It was amazing. Only when he got to the fence did he remember it was there, and he reared up to try to prevent the collision and smashed against it anyway with a tremendous crash. Furious he couldn’t get at the little girl, he roared in anger and sulked away.
That tiger wanted to eat that little girl, absolutely no question about it; he was running hell bent for leather, making no sound, and went after her like a bullet the moment she was separated from her “herd.” It was an amazing sight. But he couldn’t get her because the Toronto Zoo built an enclosure from which no tiger can escape. He wasn’t “Taunted,” and wasn’t being led on; they weren’t even looking at him. He saw a human he thought was vulnerable and tasty and decided to kill her. That’s what tigers are. They’re beautiful and my favourite animals to see at the zoo, but they’re born killers, and if you want to display them you’d best know what you’re doing.
So don’t give me this crap about them taunting the tiger. If they taunted the tiger, big whoop. Zoos have bigger problems. The tiger didn’t kill the kid in the enclosure, he killed him in the fucking cafe. It’s totally unacceptable that such a thing should happen.
Why don’t zoos have things in place not only to keep the people safe (higher fences) but to also prevent stupid people from doing things like taunting/tormenting the zoo animals? Why don’t they install cameras to monitor animal areas? I would think zoos not only have a responsibility to keep people safe from animals, but to also keep the animals safe from people. I keep hearing about zoo animals being abused and even killed by visitors and it makes me very sad.
[Moderating]
If you want to discuss the culpability of the individuals who were attacked, or the responsibility of the zoo, please take it to another forum. Remember this is GQ. There is an active thread on this topic in MPSIMS, and the Pit is available for those with stronger feelings on the matter. Please stick to the factual aspects of the OP here.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
edited away in response to Moderator post.
obligatory youtube link : a gibbon taunting two tiger cubs.
That is what I also heard. If they were shooting it with slingshots, that is provacation. To clarify. Taunting a tiger would be perhaps yelling at it, staring aggressively while yelling and making other threat displays, or throwing things at it, and shooting it with a slingshot also fits into “taunting”. See footage of orangutans or chimpanzees doing threat displays, humans have similar behaviors. Further adding: Since the tiger was “cornered” such threat displays wouldn’t trigger a “flight” response, it’d cause a “fight” response. Don’t back a cat into the corner then threaten it, lest you get shredded.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who heard about the sling shots. Do you mind telling us where you heard about the sling shot allegations?
Exactly right. And the zoo director’s self-contradictions on the height of the barriers only makes this worse. Zoo management either didn’t know exactly how high their walls were, or knew they were inadequate and didn’t do anything about it.
The kids were undoubtedly assholes. They deserved to get thrown out of the zoo. They may have deserved a hefty fine or a few hours in jail. They DIDN’T deserve to get mauled by a vicious predator.