News Blog

What do Siberian tigers do when they are cooped up in a freezing North China zoo that cannot afford to feed them? They go after one of their own. In a gruesome act of cannibalism Saturday, four adult Siberian tigers attacked a 12-year-old 330-pound tiger with which they had peacefully shared a compound for over 5 years. According to a Xinhua report Monday, the killer tigers ripped off the leg of their unlucky friend and then proceeded to eat the dead body as visitors to the zoo looked on in amazement. Imagine taking your small child to the zoo one weekend and observe four tigers go absolutely crazy on one of their own. Perhaps as comedian Chris Rock pointed out when a tiger attacked Las Vega performer Roy Horn of “Sigfried and Roy” back in 2003, the tigers didn’t go crazy, the tigers went tiger. Rock said during a performance, “That tiger was crazy when he was cycling around on stage wearing a little hat!” But according to zoologists, in the case of tigers snacking on their own species, the cats actually have to go crazy. Fan Zhiyong, species program director with the WWF, told Xinhua “This kind of tragedy of tiger eats tiger is unheard of. It rarely happens in the wild. It is obvious that the zoo’s management should be held responsible.” Reportedly, the Shenyang Zoo, where the attack took place, has been in a financial crisis for the last two years and has not been able to sufficiently feed the tigers. An adult tiger requires 20 pounds of meat a day, and the Siberians at the Shenyang Zoo were being fed a mere chicken every few days. This is not the first time starvation has led to disaster at the Shenyang Zoo. Last year, a starving elephant went crazy, not elephant, and smashed through the wall of its habitat.