Tiger kills zookeeper in New Zealand

Samantha Kudeweh dedicated her life to animals.

Police named the woman fatally mauled in the Sunday morning attack at Hamilton Zoo as Samantha Kudewah, 43, a senior staff member at the animal park south of Auckland.

‘It is too early to determine exactly what’s happened’.

“Working with wild animals comes with known risks, please don’t kill the tiger for being a tiger”.

“There is no wider risk, there is no reason for us to put Oz down”, explained Mr Vervoort.

A Facebook page was set up in the hours after the tragic incident to rally support to save Oz.

Hamilton Zoo will be closed till Thursday.

“(Staff) seemed a bit panicky.

“I am not sure if they will keep him in New Zealand – it’s going to be so hard for her family and workmates to walk past an animal every day that has that reputation”.

She would have to wait for the results of the investigations before she could say whether there were any implications for Hamilton City Council, Ms Hardaker said.

Oz is one of the zoo’s five Sumatran tigers, a subspecies considered critically endangered with about 400 living in the world.

Kudeweh had worked at the city’s zoo for 10 years and was married with two children, the statement said. “It’s very exciting for the zoo and the species”. They were offering refunds to everyone, he added.

Police have confirmed a male tiger was responsible and he has been isolated in an enclosure. It could just happen by her being in the enclosure.

In March 2001, 14-month-old Sumatran tiger siblings, male Jaka, and females Mencari and Molek, arrived from Wellington Zoo.

In 2013, a tiger took a swipe at a keeper at the zoo after a door was mistakenly left open.

Photographer David Rowe, a regular visitor at the zoo, said he had not heard who was killed, but he had strong suspicions.

The footage shows Charlie walking towards Mr Styles before launching off his back legs and dragging the keeper into a pool of water.

Kudeweh is the third New Zealand zookeeper to be killed by an animal in the past six years. The tiger wounded another man and reportedly lunged at police who were forced to use their weapons on the animal.

The man died “virtually on the spot” on Wednesday morning – apparently while he was cleaning the tiger’s enclosure.

Nevertheless, a partner at employment law firm Dundas Street, Blair Scotland, said the zoo could face big fines and hefty reparation payments if found culpable in the fatal tiger attack.

In 2005, she moved to Hamilton Zoo, where she started as the mammals team leader.

It is not the first time a keeper has had a potentially lethal encounter with a tiger at Hamilton Zoo.