Tiger may have scaled wall in zoo attack: expert

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The tiger that killed a visitor and mauled two others at the San Francisco Zoo this week may have simply scaled its exhibit's wall to attack the three, a top U.S. tiger expert said on Friday.

The 12 1/2-foot (3.8-meter) high wall built in the 1940s was short of the recommended height for walls for modern tiger enclosures, or a height of just over 16 feet urged by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Ron Tilson, the association official responsible for the recommendation, told Reuters in a telephone interview that a Siberian tiger like the one at the San Francisco Zoo could scale a wall of just over 12 feet.

"I've seen tigers, big male tigers, reach up to 12 feet high," said Tilson, also the Minnesota Zoo's conservation director.

A Siberian tiger on its hind legs could reach up to 11 feet, Tilson said, adding that the female Siberian at the San Francisco Zoo may have jumped another foot to latch its front paws on the lip of her exhibit's wall. That would have provided enough support for the powerful 350-pound cat to push itself up the concrete wall with its hind legs, Tilson said.

"I could understand how this female got her paws up and then just scrambled up," he said.

San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo speculated on Thursday the tiger jumped the wall to kill Carlos Sousa, 17, and maul his two friends, who are brothers aged 19 and 23.

The attacks on the three visitors from San Jose, California, took place as the zoo closed on Christmas Day. Police found Sousa dead at the scene. They shot and killed the tiger after it chased down the brothers, who are now recovering from wounds at a San Francisco hospital.

Actress Tippi Hedren, who operates the Shambala Preserve for exotic big cats in Acton, California, doubts the tiger scaled its exhibit wall and has never had tigers at her preserve escape over the 14 to 15 foot walls.

"I think there is something else going on," she said in a telephone interview, noting that tigers are ferocious when provoked.

Investigators found a shoeprint on the railing in front of the exhibit and are trying to determine if it matches the attack victims' shoes amid speculation that the men might have taunted the tiger.

They are treating the zoo as a crime scene and have not ruled the possibility that the tiger latched on to a limb slung over her exhibit wall to pull itself out.

San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong told reporters on Friday that investigators found no evidence to suggest the tiger had been intentionally released.

(Editing by Mary Milliken and Bill Trott)