It’s 4 feet under national association’s recommendations and 7 1/2 feet less than first reported
By Kevin Fagan, Cecilia M. Vega and Steve Rubenstein
The San Francisco Chronicle
Copyright 2007 San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — The moat wall protecting the public from the tigers at San Francisco Zoo is only 12 1/2 feet high — 4 feet below the accepted national standard for safety.
It’s also 7 1/2 feet shorter than zoo officials first said it was.
“There have been a lot of different measurements regarding the moat,” zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo said Thursday. “Today we went out and measured the moat ourselves.”
In the two days since a fatal tiger attack on Christmas Day, the zoo has given at least five different measurements for the outdoor exhibit. The dimensions have been unclear in part because the zoo has remained closed since Tuesday, and it has denied the public and press access to its grounds and has forbidden employees from talking about the tragedy.
The zoo’s changing story regarding the grotto’s dimensions is only one headache for investigators trying to piece together how a Siberian tiger got out of her outdoor exhibit, killed a San Jose teen and injured two of his friends.
The survivors haven’t been forthcoming in interviews with police, according to sources close to the investigation. And the zoo doesn’t have cameras that might have recorded the big cat’s escape. Mollinedo has also vacillated on whether the tiger might have needed human help to jump out of the grotto.
Police have not ruled out that the cat might have latched on to a dangling arm or leg to pull itself out. Sources said Tatiana’s hind claws showed signs of wear and stress, possibly indicating she scaled the concrete wall.
After leaving the grotto, the animal fatally mauled 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. and injured his friends, brothers Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, all of San Jose.
An American Zoological Association expert on tigers is expected to arrive at the zoo in the coming days to help local officials better understand tiger behavior and determine whether it is physically possible for a 350-pound tiger to leap or climb a 12 1/2-foot wall. A female Siberian can grow to more than 8 feet, from snout to tail, and would be even taller standing on its hind legs and reaching up.
Investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees zoos, also arrived Thursday.
The grotto is separated from the public by a 33-foot-wide dry moat, a small patch of vegetation and another waist-high fence. After the attack, a sign behind the fence that separates visitors from the tiger grotto was splattered in blood, sources said.
A shoeprint was found on the railing of the waist-high fence.
“We have all three pairs of shoes from the victims, and now we will see if any of them matches the footprint on the fence,” Police Chief Heather Fong said Thursday.
Police have consistently downplayed the idea that the victims may have taunted the tiger, although Mollinedo told The Chronicle on Wednesday that it was likely that the animal was provoked.
The grotto, built in 1940, was inspected three years ago by officials from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Mollinedo said, “They raised no concerns about the wall.”
Association spokesman Steve Feldman said the grotto’s walls were deemed effective — all that is needed to maintain accreditation. While there are recommended standards for such exhibits, the association only has one absolute requirement - that the animals not be able to get out, Feldman said.
The association’s Species Survival Plan Program recommends that such walls be 5 meters tall, or 16.4 feet.
The actual measurements of the grotto were different from information on file in the zoo office, Mollinedo said.
The tiger had to have jumped out, but “how she jumped that high is beyond me,” he said. The door to the outdoor exhibit was not left ajar, he said.
Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, whose district includes the zoo and who is acting mayor while Mayor Gavin Newsom is vacationing in Hawaii, said news of the wall’s true height was shocking.
“Without question, that is a very damning fact,” Elsbernd said.
It’s one that may have played a vital role in the attack that unfolded around twilight on Christmas.
Three paramedics were the first to find Sousa’s body after someone called 911. The boy was lying near the grotto with a wide gash across his neck; the emergency workers, along with an ambulance driver, were told of additional victims outside the Terrace Cafe restaurant, about 300 yards east. When they arrived, they found the tiger standing over one of the brothers.
For a time, authorities feared that as many as four tigers were loose, and they searched the park repeatedly on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, believing there could be more victims.
Fong said police officers received the 911 call at 5:07 p.m., departed for the zoo at 5:08 p.m. and killed the tiger 19 minutes later.
Two plainclothes officers arrived at the park in a police car and went to the grotto, Fong said, where they saw the deceased victim first. The officers were then directed toward the cafe.
“They saw the victim on the ground. They saw blood coming from the victim’s face. They heard him saying, ‘Help me, help me,’ ” Fong said. “They saw the tiger sitting there, then it turned and started attacking the victim again.”
At that time, she said, a patrol car carrying two uniformed officers pulled up, and the officers got out of the vehicle and attempted to distract the animal by shining their lights on it. The cat stopped attacking the man and began to move toward the plainclothes officers; all four officers at that point opened fire with their .40-caliber handguns, striking the tiger an unknown number of times.
“They didn’t know where the tiger was going - they knew there had been one attack and a deceased person,” Fong said.
Authorities now believe that the tiger escaped the grotto and first attacked one of the brothers. The men yelled, Fong said, and the tiger released the man, then grabbed Sousa. At that time, she said, the brothers ran toward the cafe, where they had eaten earlier. She said the men ran in that direction because they believed there would be people in the area.
The tiger caught up to the men and attacked the second brother outside the cafe.
Zoo officials, who said they would reopen Friday, changed their plan and said the zoo will remain closed indefinitely. Mollinedo said it would not reopen until it was deemed safe.
Jason McCormack, who manages a photo booth across from the Terrace Cafe, arrived at the booth Thursday to do some payroll paperwork. McCormack, who closed the booth around 4 p.m. on Christmas Day, said he was frustrated.
“I’ve got employees that have to get paid tomorrow and I can’t get in,” he said. “It’s very hush-hush in there.”
McCormack said he was glad that he let his staff leave early that night.
“It’s a good thing because they would have been freaked out if they would have seen the whole thing,” he said. “It’s pitch black around here by 5 p.m. I would have been scared to be anywhere near that cage the way they’re describing the situation there.”
Tension was so high at the zoo that guards Thursday turned away a florist attempting to deliver bouquets of condolence flowers intended for Mollinedo and Robert Jenkins, the zoo’s head of animal care.
“You are in our thoughts and prayers,” said the notes on the rejected bouquets sent by zookeepers in Pittsburgh.
“There have been a lot of different measurements regarding the moat. Today we went out and measured the moat ourselves.”