BURLINGTON, N.C. – An intern was cleaning an animal enclosure at a North Carolina wildlife center when a lion escaped from a nearby pen and attacked her, killing the young woman and sending visitors out of the zoo, authorities said.
Deputies shot and killed the lion Sunday before retrieving the body of Alexandra Black, 22, a recent college graduate who had worked at the center for about two weeks.
"This person's passion was the zoological industry. This was not this person's first internship. This person wanted to spend a lifetime around these animals, and I believe that the family was very supportive of that," said Mindy Stinner, executive director of the privately run Conservators Center, about 60 miles northwest of Raleigh.
Black was accompanying other staff members as they did a routine cleaning of the pen. That's when the lion got free from a separate locked space, according to the center.
Deputies arrived and shot the lion after several attempts to tranquilize it or hold it at bay with fire hoses, the Caswell County Sheriff's Office said.
Visitors were hustled out of the park, Stinner said.
It was not immediately clear how the lion escaped or whether it got out of the enclosure that was being cleaned. Staff said the lion never made it beyond the park's perimeter fence. The park was closed indefinitely.
Black, from New Palestine, Ind., graduated from Indiana University in May with a degree in animal behavior. She also had recently worked at Wolf Park in Battleground, Ind., her family said.
