"Why Would a Zookeeper with 40 Years of Experience Do That?" ... Dies Three Days After Leopard Attack

Found inside leopard enclosure, contrary to protocol
Zoo: "Memorial space to be created... leopards will not be euthanized"

A veteran zookeeper who had worked at a zoo in the Netherlands for 40 years has died after being mauled by a leopard and suffering severe injuries.

According to The New York Times (NYT) on October 28 local time, a woman in her late 50s who worked at SafariPark Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek, southern Netherlands, died three days after the incident. On October 24, she was attacked by a Persian leopard and suffered severe injuries to her head and neck.

[Photo courtesy of the World Wide Fund for Nature].

The zoo believes the zookeeper was attacked by one or two leopards while moving the Persian leopards indoors during her morning patrol because of a storm forecast. There were no surveillance cameras inside the enclosure where she was attacked, making it difficult to determine exactly what happened, including whether both leopards took part. However, the zoo said she was found inside the leopard enclosure, contrary to regulations.

The safari park is designed to prevent predators and zookeepers from being inside the same enclosure at the same time. A zoo spokesperson said, "Something appears to have gone wrong," and that the zoo was conducting its own investigation with several supervisory agencies into why the zookeeper, who was highly experienced and especially safety-conscious, had entered the enclosure where the leopards were.

Despite suffering serious injuries to her neck and head, the zookeeper used her radio to call her colleagues for help. An ambulance and an emergency helicopter then arrived at the scene and took her to hospital. Her surgery was successful, but her condition deteriorated rapidly the following day, and she died on October 27, three days after the incident.

The deceased zookeeper reportedly began working at the zoo at age 17 and had been employed there for 40 years. She had been responsible for managing predators for the past eight years and was a veteran staff member. The zoo said it would support her family and create a small memorial space to honor her.

The zoo said the leopards in the enclosure where the incident occurred "were simply displaying natural behavior." They were not euthanized and were moved back from the enclosure to their original outdoor habitat.

This was not the first fatal accident at the zoo, one of the most popular in the Netherlands. In 2003, a 36-year-old employee was trampled to death by an elephant.

However, the NYT noted that fatal attacks by zoo predators are very rare in the Netherlands, where regulations on predator management are strict. Dutch zoos have about 200 large cats, and private individuals are not allowed to keep them without a zoo permit.

Winneke Hos, chair of the Dutch Zoo Federation, urged caution, saying, "(Wild animals) are dangerous species. They are not goats at a petting zoo."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.