Minnesota Zoo reviews security after San Francisco tragedy

Each morning, before the Minnesota Zoo's tigers are allowed back into their exhibit, someone walks the perimeter to be certain that an oak tree, weakened by disease, hasn't crumpled overnight and ripped out part of the fence or given the tigers a way to climb out.

And just in case the fence turned out not to be enough, guns are locked away in four spots scattered around the zoo.

Members of a "shoot team" train in marksmanship twice each year -- and are under standing orders to kill at once if the escape involves four especially frightening species.

And the Minnesota Zoo has even taken into account what happens when, on occasion, visitors annoy the animals.

In the wake of the mauling death at the San Francisco Zoo last month -- in which a tiger managed to get out of its enclosure and attack three visitors -- the Minnesota Zoo's board and senior management is taking a look at its own security.

At a meeting of the zoo board on Thursday in Edina, members peppered senior managers with questions about how zoos keep their visitors safe.

"Can it happen here?" Kevin Willis, the zoo's director of biological programs, told board members. "Of course. That's why we have drills, and guns. It's serious."

No visitor to any accredited American zoo had ever before been killed by an escaped animal, period.

The San Francisco Zoo had safely housed the same species in the same setting for 70 years, and the Minnesota Zoo has 30 unblemished years housing tigers.

Largely because of that track record, zoos aren't subject to any mandatory regulations -- just national guidelines issued by their own association -- when it comes to safety measures such as the height of a tiger enclosure. Though they were quick to add that could well now change.

The fencing surrounding the tiger exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo not only meets the national guidelines on tiger walls, Willis said, they are the source of those guidelines. A Minnesota Zoo expert wrote them, based upon the height the zoo had decided was safe: 14 feet straight up, topped by a cantilevered row of fencing stretching 2 more feet. The actual height here -- measured, to be sure, the day after the San Francisco incident -- is 18 feet.

In contrast, the enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo was only 12 1/2 feet tall. That height, Willis said, can perhaps be traced to an age-old confidence in India, where tigers are common, that a person can ride safely through tiger country atop an elephant, which stands 11 to 13 feet tall.

Although some board members raised the issue of the taunting of animals that may have occurred at San Francisco, Willis stressed more than once that that is irrelevant when it comes to exhibit design. The fact is, he said, visitors do sometimes annoy animals. All exhibits need to account for what a young angry animal might do if provoked.

"We get reports from our visitors about things like kids throwing snowballs at our animals," he said.

Only four zoo species -- tigers, leopards, bears and pumas -- are considered so dangerous to humans that the zoo's "shoot team" has standing orders to kill them at once if they ever get out, Willis said.

One question facing the zoo today, as it reviews its setup, is whether security cameras should be installed.

Zoo director Ehmke cautioned board members that it would be "enormously expensive" to install and monitor a security system on a 500-acre facility at a time when there is a $30 million backlog in basic upkeep.