Tiger Escapes From Enclosure

Thursday morning, officials at the Honolulu zoo had a problem on their hands, a 250 pound, furry problem. Their 8 year old male tiger Berani escaped from his enclosure around 8:15 AM, just prior to the zoo opening for the public at 9:00 AM.

A zookeeper had entered his exhibit in order to clean it and ready it for the day ahead, however the zookeeper failed to secure one of the gates allowing the animal to escape. Sidney Quintal spoke on behalf of the zookeeper stating that "The zookeeper did not do what was normal protocol, lock one door, go through and lock another door before going on to his other tasks".

After leaving his enclosure, the tiger walked past a zoo volunteer who immediately went for help to contain the animal. Zookeepers described Berani as being one of the more mellow of their tigers due to the fact that he was raised by humans. Although he could have easily walked into an open part of the zoo, he instead walked into a containing area near his exhibit where zookeepers were then able to take control of the situation. The entire incident was under control and over with within a half hour.

Sumatran tigers such as Berani have the potential to be very dangerous if put in a compromising situation. They can reach up to eight feet in length and weigh 300 pounds. The zoo held a staff meeting Friday to review their protocol for events such as this to prevent any future incidents from occurring.