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SF Zoo pulls Tony the tiger from moat - Twilla - 03-31-2010
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Tony the tiger was feeling grrrreat, albeit a bit groggy Tuesday, one day after firefighters and San Francisco Zoo officials hit him with tranquilizer darts and pulled him out of a moat where he spent four nights.
The 360-pound Siberian tiger, who is 18 years old, or 90 in cat years, had climbed down Thursday into the dry moat in the tiger enclosure.
The spot is one of his favorite places in the outdoor enclosure, but this time, he refused to leave.
Given his age, zoo officials didn't want to try to starve him out. So they tossed his daily dose of medicine-laced meatballs, other food and buckets of water into the moat. Tony played with the buckets and looked healthy and content in the moat, with no sign he wanted to leave.
"He just was not motivated to climb the steps or rocks to return to his exhibit," said mammal curator Ingrid Russell-White said in a statement.
No wonder.
"He was getting room service," zoo spokeswoman Lora LaMarca said.
On Monday, zoo officials decided enough was enough. The tiger poop in the moat was getting out of control and with rain forecast, they worried the water mixing with his food would draw flies and create a health hazard, LaMarca said.
That's when San Francisco firefighters got the call to help rescue a cat - albeit not one stuck in a tree.
"It's a very unusual call," said Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge.
The firefighters set up the kind of rescue used to pull someone up from a cliff.
"The setup is all the same, the equipment is all the same," Talmadge said. "The subject just happened to be a tiger."
Anesthetized and intubated, Tony was loaded onto a board, strapped down and hauled out with a pulley about 8:30 a.m.
It took a little more than two hours to complete the mission, zoo officials said.
On Tuesday, Tony was resting comfortably in his night enclosure and was on exhibit later in the day.
He won't be allowed outside until the curators can figure out how to keep him from getting into the moat again, LaMarca said.
Tony's most recent veterinary review showed him in good health, although showing signs of senility, zoo officials said.
Siberian tigers have a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years in the wild and 14 to 20 years in captivity. The zoo has two other tigers, Leanne, a 7-year-old female Sumatran tiger, and 21-year-old Padang. Tony, at the zoo since 1993, likes to be alone.
"Why he went down and stayed down, who knows," LaMarca said. He is, after all, a cat.
"They've got minds of their own."
E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/31/BATT1CNF0F.DTL#ixzz0jnKQqHiD
RE: SF Zoo pulls Tony the tiger from moat - Twitchin Kitten - 03-31-2010
You know, the curators who gave the info to the news press should be ashamed of themselves, especially since they are SD zoo workers!
HELLOOOO senility is why he's staying in the moat.
"He likes to be alone" - HELLOOOO tigers are solitary cats in the wild. They only stay together until puberty.
RE: SF Zoo pulls Tony the tiger from moat - Twilla - 03-31-2010
San Francisco, but yeah, I know what you mean.
RE: SF Zoo pulls Tony the tiger from moat - Twitchin Kitten - 03-31-2010
OOPS! I misread that! Either way the San Francisco Zoo is a pretty well respected zoo too.
RE: SF Zoo pulls Tony the tiger from moat - twisteroo - 04-01-2010
What bullshit, the cat wants to be alone....leave him alone.
They wanted him back up so people could gawk at him, man he lives in a fucking cage.
They should be ashamed of themselves.....if he wanted to stay down there, let him stay.
And if he freaked out and shreaded 3 or 4 zoo workers Tony would have been the bad guy.
Tony would have to live on a steady diet of humans for the rest of his life to even the score as far as I'm concerned.
Bastards....you must have to pay extra to see Tony or something. For an extra quarter you can poke Tony the ex-jungle cat with a sharp stick and humiliate him even more.
Quote:On Tuesday, Tony was resting comfortably in his night enclosure and was on exhibit later in the day.
He won't be allowed outside until the curators can figure out how to keep him from getting into the moat again, LaMarca said.
RE: SF Zoo pulls Tony the tiger from moat - Twitchin Kitten - 04-01-2010
I'm with you there, Twistie.
Tigers are clean animals, once the moat filled with water (why wasn't it to begin with?) he'd have gotten out on his own.
The Philly zoo's tiger enclosure is nice. Small but nice for what it is and the moat always has water in it. The tigers will swim in there and play with all the toys floating around. In the summer, they send in blocks of ice with frozen meat in it for them to play with. Same for the other large carnivores. It's my favorite zoo.
RE: SF Zoo pulls Tony the tiger from moat - twisteroo - 04-01-2010
Free Tony!!!! Free Tony!!! Free Tony!!! Attica!!! Attica!!! Attica!!!!
RE: SF Zoo pulls Tony the tiger from moat - Twilla - 04-01-2010
Yeah, the whole point of a 'moat' is to contain water, right? I thought that was weird, too.
RE: SF Zoo pulls Tony the tiger from moat - twisteroo - 04-01-2010
I'm gonna get a free Tony tattoo and go on a hunger strike till I get custody of Tony. Then the two of us will wander the country and have zaney adventures, kinda like BJ and the bear or then came Bronson, or natural born killers or something.
RE: SF Zoo pulls Tony the tiger from moat - LH - 04-02-2010
When a Tiger dies in the zoo do they sell the pelt and teeth and bones and claws and stuff?