A black panther apparently mauled a man to death at a Russian zoo.
The man was discovered dead inside the big cat’s cage at a private zoo, according to the Daily Mail.
The man was bitten in the neck after the cat pounced on him. He was identified as a Ukrainian man between the ages of 25 and 30, and according to the report, he unlocked the cage’s entrance.
The panther then escaped through the ajar door of the cage.
The animal was captured “several hours later” after a search.
The owner of the zoo, Sergey Knyaginichev, denied that the man was a keeper after reports suggested it. He said the man was a visitor from Ukraine who shouldn’t have gone inside the cage.
Black panther mauls to death a Ukrainian man who tried to enter his cage at a private zoo in Russia https://t.co/A6k4qbk7yD
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) January 3, 2018
He didn’t explain why the man was wearing a zookeeper’s uniform when he was slain, but he said that the man was likely drunk, according to the Mail.
The panther wasn’t put down. It’s not clear what will happen to the animal.
“The man wanted to feed the animal and the panther attacked him when he entered the cage,” said a spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee.
The attack took place in a village by Istra in Moscow on Tuesday, Dec. 2, the Russian Investigative Committee told RT.
The owner of the zoo keeps about 10 wild animals at the facility. About five years ago, a TV report said that a lion owned by Knyaginichev escaped and terrorized a local village.
Some residents were aghast when they learned that a panther had escaped. “My husband was walking our dog [at the time of the incident],” a local woman was quoted by RT, a state-backed media outlet, as saying.
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