FLORIDA (NYTIMES) - A man who worked for a cleaning service at the Naples Zoo in Florida was seriously injured on Wednesday (Dec 29) when a tiger bit his arm after he went into a restricted area and reached into the animal's enclosure, the authorities said.
The first sheriff's deputy to arrive at the zoo kicked the tiger enclosure and tried to get the animal to release the man's arm from its mouth but was "forced to shoot" the Malayan tiger, the Collier County Sheriff's Office said.
The zoo said that eight-year-old Eko, which it had acquired from Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle in December 2019, had died.
The man, who is in his 20s, was taken to a hospital by Collier County emergency medical services, the sheriff's office said.
A spokesman for Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, Florida, confirmed on Wednesday that it was treating a patient who had been bitten by a tiger but said he could not release any further information.
The sheriff's office said the man, who worked for a cleaning service hired by the zoo, had entered an "unauthorised area" near a tiger enclosure after the zoo had closed for the day.
The cleaning company is responsible for cleaning restrooms and the gift shop, not animal enclosures, the sheriff's office said.
"Preliminary information indicates that the man was either petting or feeding the animal, both of which are unauthorised and dangerous activities," the sheriff's office said.
Citing initial reports, the office said that the tiger had grabbed the man's arm and pulled it into the enclosure after the man crossed over a fenced barrier and put his arm through the fencing around the enclosure.
Deputies were called to the zoo at around 6.30pm, the office said. The zoo declined to comment beyond sharing the statement from the sheriff's office.
Malayan tigers have been classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
Fewer than 200 of the animals remain in the wild, down from as many as 3,000 in the 1950s, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
The fund blamed the decline on loss of habitat because of development, agricultural expansion and hunting.
