Posted on 12/25/2007 6:56:38 PM PST by Shermy
“So, sir, what is your tiger’s name?”
“We call him Imgonnagetyousucker.”
“...the cat then followed blood trails to Terrace Cafe, where it cornered the other boys, brothers ages 19 and 23.”
This sounds more like Jurassic Park than San Francisco Zoo.
>> This sounds more like Jurassic Park... <<
Jurassic Park was a movie - this sounds more like Yourasshashadit Park to me.
The latest coverage on this event indicated the three individuals involved may have been taunting the tiger. If true, they got what they deserved and it is unfortunate that such a magnificent and rare beast had to be destroyed.
Having worked as a keeper in a zoo, I know that there are elements of the public out there who are pretty primitive.
They would feel quite comfortable at the Colloseum watching wild beasts and gladiators tear each other apart.
Some of them would sneak in to the zoo at night and kill birds and other animals just for kicks so we eventually had to make sure everything was shut up and away from any nutjob who might sneak in at night.
When I was a keeper, they frequently taunted us as we were working there - not everyone or even most people, but that certain element.
Did you hunt lions or work with them? I read somewhere - I think it was in “Death in the Long Grass” that a charging lion is the fastest quadruped around for a short distance.
“I thought only the WHITE TIGERS are deadly..”
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Pick up a copy of “The Man-Eaters of Kumoun” by Jim Corbett.
It was written at the beginning of the twentieth century by a big game hunter retained by the British government to track down and kill man-eating tigers. None of them were “white tigers”. HOWEVER, Corbett himslef states that a man-eating tiger is generally an anomaly. All or nearly all the ones he killed - and some of them had killed and eaten over 500 people, were either sick or wounded and couldn’t take their “normal” prey like Sambaur or Buffalo, or were tigers which were RAISED by a parent who was a man-eater. Corbett saw some pretty pathetic sights in his career - like having to sit in a machan above the recent kill of a young human killed by a man-eater, waiting for the beast to return, but he was certainly no tiger hater.
They are magnificent beasts. And the Siberian is one of the most impressive and rarest of them all.
You also hae to remember that most animals in a zoo situation are not “normal”. They have lost their fear of people, they come to associate people with food, they are bored, frequently neurotic, and can;t be considered typical of their kind.
Lions are my favorite cats...
I went on a safari in Kenya as a teen. I saw a younger 400 lb. “dog soldier” male bound three or four steps, make an incredible leap up onto a vertical twenty foot bluff when we startled him from his noon sleep in the grass.
It was a majestic sight, but we hurried back to the truck despite having rifles and several armed escorts.
I would only hunt lions with a camera... We also only killed what people would eat...
“..make an incredible leap up onto a vertical twenty foot bluff.”
Interesting. Tigers are larger than lions.
There are still man-eaters in Africa and Asia I understand, but given the massive depopulation of lions and tigers, these are fewer in number.
Why are you replying to me? I did not make the questionable statement about white tigers. I only replied to it.
Sorry. No offense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.