Pets & Animals

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / KCBS) ― The tiger that attacked and killed a teenager on Christmas day had lost 50 pounds since arriving at the San Francisco Zoo as a young and healthy animal two years earlier, raising concerns about whether she was getting enough to eat.

A KCBS Radio investigation of zoo records shows Tatiana arrived in San Francisco in December 2005 weighing 292 pounds. She was entering the prime of her life at two and a half years old. When she was shot and killed by police in December 2007, she weighed just 242 pounds.

Newly obtained zoo records show at least one reason for Tatiana's weight loss: she was fed less in San Francisco than at her previous home in Denver. San Francisco Zoo officials say they monitored Tatiana's weight and diet closely, and that both were appropriate.

But some experts outside the zoo say Tatiana's behavior, weight loss and diet raise serious questions about whether she was getting enough to eat. And some say that may have been a factor in her attack on a zookeeper in 2006 and the fatal attack on Carlos Souza Jr. in December.

Diet and Weight

Before she arrived in San Francisco, it appeared Tatiana was reaching her physical maturity. In the six months before she left Denver after steady growth as a cub, zoo records show her weight fluctuated only slightly, between 292 and 299 pounds, in the middle weight range for Siberian females.

But in San Francisco, her weight declined steadily, dropping into the 270s in her first year at the zoo in 2006, into the 260s the first half of last year, then into the 250s last fall. In her last live weighing last December, two weeks before the fatal attack, Tatiana weighed just 244. Her necropsy set her weight at death at 242 pounds, 50 pounds less than her zoo arrival weight as noted in the San Francisco Zoo's "Individual Specimen Report."

Zoo officials say Tatiana's weight loss was seasonal, that she lost weight in the winter and put it back on in the summer. But her weight history shows steady significant weight loss over her two years in San Francisco, with a few minor variations.

In Denver, she was being fed 42 pounds of meat a week: six pounds a day, seven days a week. The Denver Zoo says she was in good shape, and that there was no indication she was over-weight when she was sent to her new home.

But upon her arrival in San Francisco, zoo records show she was fed less, 36 pounds a week: six pounds six days a week, with the seventh day a "fast day" that is not uncommon in big cat zoo diets. Her weight records show Tatiana lost 20 pounds in her first month in San Francisco.

Throughout all but five weeks of her two years at the San Francisco Zoo, despite her considerable weight loss, she was fed between 32 and 36 pounds of meat a week (mostly a combination of raw horsemeat and dressed whole rabbits), well below the 42 pounds she was fed in Denver.

"Even on the low end of the weight scale for female Siberian tigers, (the diet) is a little light," said. Richard Farinato, former director of the Humane Society's captive wildlife protection program and an animal sanctuary manager. "Unless they were purposely trying to make her shed weight, and I can't understand why they would be." Zoo officials didn't respond to a request for an explanation of the reduced diet.

Attack on Zookeeper

In December 2006, one year after her arrival, Tatiana attacked zookeeper Lori Komejan during a public feeding. The tiger somehow grabbed Komejan's arm through the cage bars and clawed and chewed the arm until Komejan was rescued and rushed to the hospital with severe injuries. Komejan didn't return to work, and is suing the zoo for negligence.

Six weeks later, in Tatiana's first weighing after the attack, she weighed 260 pounds, her lowest since her arrival. A zoo diet change request form shows that on the next day, February 11, 2007, her diet was increased to 38-42 pounds a week. Zoo officials declined to comment on the reason for the increase.

But five weeks later, on March 22, Tatiana's food was cut back to the previous amount, 32-36 pounds a week. The reason according to a zoo official: she was "gaining too much weight." There is no indication that she had been weighed again before that decision was made.

Zoo veterinarian Jacqueline Jencek said during Tatiana's time in San Francisco, the tiger measured an ideal five on the one to nine "BCS" or "body conditioning score," with a score of one being emaciated and nine being obese. "I always felt Tatiana was an ideal weight."

Mel Richardson, a veterinarian who has worked with tigers and other captive wildlife for more than 30 years in and out of zoos, said BCS is subjective. "A conditioning score, you and I would have a different concept of. Even if we learned it the same way, we might judge it a little differently." Richardson said BCS, which is based on visual inspection, should be just one factor in determining a tiger's diet, with weight history and behavior the other key components.

"Different people have different concepts of what they consider an ideal weight," said Louis Dorfman, an animal behaviorist with the International Exotic Feline Sanctuary in Texas. "Some people think they ought to look like how they look in the wild, very lean, and to me, undernourished. (Tatiana) sounds light in weight, sounds light in food quantity. But what would be more meaningful to me would be those notes saying she seemed hungry. The animal lets you know when they're not getting enough."

"Frantic for Food"

In the months that followed the return to the smaller diet, Tatiana's keepers made note several times of her apparent hunger for more food in the log entries. From the zookeeper's log of April 21, 2007: Tatiana "frantic for food." From the log of June 1: Tatiana "frantic for food." From the log of June 3: Tatiana "very hungry." From a November 11 zookeeper report, noting Tatiana's theft of part of a male tiger's meal: "Animal got double her ration today. She acted like she wanted more."

The San Francisco Zoo's Jencek said the keepers' notes were not unusual. "You want the animals to be excited about meal time. That's the kind of response you want from them. I don't want an animal being sluggish. I'd rather have an animal that's active and enthusiastic."

But some outside experts disagreed, saying zookeepers make note of the unusual, not of normal behavior. "You do want some eagerness to eat, but it sounds like this was on the other side of that," said Richardson. "At least the keeper thought it was, or he wouldn't have written that. You know maybe we're not giving her enough. First thing that pops into my mind. That's without seeing her, but that's the most common reason a cat would be that hungry and act that hungry is that she's not getting enough."

Pat Derby, founder and president of PAWS (Performing Animal Welfare Society) and a veteran of 35 years working with tigers and other captive wildlife, said feeding behavior is important. "We instruct our keepers if the animals eat everything that you feed and they still display signs of hunger, if they're snarly and they attack the meat, you want to increase their diet. Behavioral signs are critical to any diagnosis. You can't just look at an animal and say they look thin or fat."

"Your keepers are your eyes and ears for the health of the collection," said Les Schobert, former general curator at the Los Angeles and North Carolina Zoos. "(The keepers' notes) are very important, and I think you have to go down and talk to the keepers then and look at the cat. Let's give her a little extra the next couple of weeks and see if the behavior diminishes. They should have investigated. The keepers did run up a flag to say that the animal was aggressively eating all of its food. That coupled with the weight loss would say 'hey, maybe I ought to go down there and look at that cat.'"

Jencek said she never saw signs of aggression by Tatiana at feeding time. "I believe the keepers are making sporadic notes of it, but I also believe they're probably writing it about lions and other tigers too." The zoo didn't provide examples of similar keeper notes about other animals.

In September, the zoo re-opened the lion house for public feedings, which had been discontinued after the attack on keeper Komejan. A San Francisco Chronicle article about the re-opening made this reference to the tiger: "Tatiana… was known as a 'grabber' among zoo employees… she was quickest with her paw when the meal - five pounds of fortified meat - was presented."

KCBS Radio reporter Doug Sovern, who covered the re-opening of the lion house, asked zoo officials that day about Tatiana's apparent agitation during the public feeding. "Her behavior was not normal," he said. "She was anxious and neurotic and upset. It was really depressing, and I wasn't the only reporter who noticed this. We all said this animal is not happy and expressed our concern to the zoo staff, and were assured that everything was normal."

Sovern said Tatiana's behavior was distinctly different from the eight other lions and tigers at the feeding.

The observations differ markedly from the description of Tatiana's temperament by her zookeeper in Denver, who filled out the Animal Data Transfer Form when the tiger was shipped to San Francisco: "Even-tempered animal, socialized, transfers easily, adaptable."

Christmas Day Tragedy

By November 20 last year, two months after the lion house re-opening, Tatiana's weight had dropped to 255, then to 244 on December 17, with no adjustments made to her diet.

Eight days later, Tatiana leaped out of her enclosure as the zoo was closing Christmas Day. She attacked and killed 17 year old Carlos Souza Jr. and mauled his friends before she was shot dead by police. Zoo officials suggested the young men had been taunting Tatiana, but police did not charge them.

"I do not believe you can say the cat jumped out of her enclosure just to go look for something to eat," said Schobert. But "a hungry cat would potentially be an aggravated cat." Would that mean an aggressive cat? "Sure it would. Now did the cat get out of the enclosure because of that? I doubt it very seriously. Did it contribute to it? It might have contributed to the agitation of the cat."

"If the cats are hungry," said Derby, "they're more aggressive, they're irritable."

"I think that could have been a factor, sure," said Richardson. "Not only is she very hungry, but now she's more athletic. I got about 20 pounds on me and I'm not going to jump out of an exhibit. In my younger days I could do a lot more. She's an athletic animal, and when I heard how small the moat was, she only had to jump four feet when she stood up." (The moat was 12 1/2 feet high, four feet below the national standard).

Hunger "would make them much more agitated, much more stressed," said Louis Dorfman, "and much more susceptible to external negative influences."

San Francisco Zoo veterinarian Jencek noted that Tatiana's necropsy found her to be in good health. "The necropsy report listed her as good nutritional status. The fat stores there were adequate and she was not by any means emaciated." Richardson said a tiger can be underfed, hungry and agitated, and still be in good physical health. "It would be enough to keep her hungry, but not necessarily enough to cause any damage to the liver or the kidney or anything."

The day after the fatal attack, former zoo director Manuel Mollinedo, who resigned June 6, said Tatiana had been "at the top of her game." Her necropsy set her final weight at 242 pounds. She was four and a half years old.
 
On Thursday afternoon, the San Francisco Zoo issued a statement in response to the concerns raised about her feeding, again emphasizing the necropsy findings that the tiger's nutritional status was considered to be healthy.

But Michael Cardoza, attorney for the family of fatal mauling victim Carlos Sousa, Jr., told CBS 5 that he found this new information on the tiger's feeding "very, very disturbing."

"It's appalling," he said, noting that everybody has changes of moods when their diets are changed.  "She was definitely underfed, and she became aggressive because of it."

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