Zookeeper killed by tiger ‘may have been tired from night feeds’

A zookeeper mauled to death by a tiger may have been tired after helping with night feeds for a serval kitten, an inquest has heard.

Rosa King suffered significant injuries and died at the scene following the attack by a Malayan male called Cicip at Hamerton Zoo Park, Cambridgeshire, two years ago.

The hearing in Huntingdon heard the 33-year-old appeared to have been trying to leave the tiger enclosure after cleaning its viewing windows when she was killed.

Head keeper Katherine Adams said Ms King was “very safety conscious” but also said she had been sharing care duties for a small African cat with Ms Adams and fellow keeper Amy Beardmore.

This involved feeding the animal every three hours at its peak, including through the night.

Two gates used for keepers to access the enclosure, one wooden and one metal, were found to be open just after the attack on 29 May 2017.

Ms Adams said Ms King was on duty at the enclosure the previous night.

She said that Ms King may have left open a vertical metal sliding gate designed to make sure staff and tigers were not in the paddock at the same time.

She said the protocol was for a keeper to locate the tiger and ensure it was isolated before entering the enclosure.

“The system was fool proof,” she said. “It just never entered our heads that it would go wrong.

“If you carried out the protocol and went through every step then you should never put yourself into the situation where you and a cat should be in the same section.”

Asked by assistant coroner Nicholas Moss if there was any reason a keeper would enter the paddock while the sliding gate was open, she said: “No, you just wouldn’t.”

But Ms King was working alone, according to Ms Adams, adding: “There’s only one person who knows (what happened).”

Ms Adams said she believed Ms King was attempting to leave the paddock when she was attacked.

“Where the [cleaning] bucket and everything were, it looked like she was just about at the gate,” she said.

Ms Adams said the wooden gate was to stop the public from walking into the keepers’ area, adding: “It wouldn’t stop a tiger from getting out, even if it was closed.”

The inquest continues.

(c) Sky News 2019: Zookeeper killed by tiger ‘may have been tired from night feeds’