Wellington - A zookeeper who was killed by a rare white
tiger at a New Zealand wildlife park on Wednesday had saved a fellow
worker from a similar attack in February, according to news reports.
Dalu Mncube, a South African native, was fatally mauled while
cleaning an enclosure in the Zion Wildlife Gardens in Whangarei, the
main city of New Zealand's Northland province.
The Royal White Tiger - one of only 120 left in the world,
according to the New Zealand Herald website - had to be killed by
wildlife park staff in order to recover the body of the dead man, who
left a partner and 1-year-old daughter.
The sub-species of the Bengal tiger is thought to be extinct in
the wild.
A group of eight overseas tourists looked on horrified as one of
two white tigers in the enclosure attacked the man and refused to let
him go despite a second keeper's efforts to rescue him.
The tiger was believed to be Abu, a male who attacked keeper
Demetri Price in February, biting his knee until Mncube forced the
animal to let go by pulling his jaws open and using a fire
extinguisher to make him back off.
'I never got scared,' Mncube told the Herald at the time. 'You
stay nice and calm. If I got scared and panicked we could have had
two casualties ... it happened in a flash. It was over before we knew
it.'
Fellow staff at the park, which has more than 40 lions and tigers,
were said to be traumatised and it was closed until further notice.
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