A tiger was spotted on camera pouncing at a zoo visitor who turned her back to it.
A video was captured of the incident, showing the tiger stalking behind the woman at a Russian zoo. The woman turns around and the tiger launches itself at her, hitting the protective glass instead, according to The Independent.
It comes just a few days after a lion charged a little boy at Japan’s Chiba Zoo.
Lion expert Adam M Roberts from Born Free USA told The Dodo: “Lions are natural wild predators and the child in this video, especially when turning his back to the massive feline, becomes prey in the animal’s eyes.
“The firm glass wall held the lion inside his enclosure, surely frustrating his innate instincts.
“But luckily for the family, if the barrier had not held the consequences could have been catastrophic.”
Tigers are the largest cat species, with males getting up to more than 800 pounds.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, tigers are listed as endangered, with a population of only around 3,890. “Across their range, tigers face unrelenting pressures from poaching, retaliatory killings and habitat loss. They are forced to compete for space with dense and often growing human populations,” the WWF website states.
