The man who was killed by a tiger at a zoo in South Yorkshire has been locally identified as William Chapman, a youth in his 20s who managed to enter the tiger’s enclosure. The police have not named him officially. Chapman was seen walking up to a 200kg male Siberian tiger named Attai, who attacked him, and Chapman was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after the attack.Several fake and AI-generated videos of the purported incident went viral and police advised people not to share them. In verified videos. onlookers urged him not to approach the tiger and to “play dead”. As an investigation is going into the incident, the Yorkshire Wildlife Park remained closed for the fourth day on Tuesday.Altai is an endangered tiger and he would not be euthanised.
No security system could have prevented him
Amid questions as to how Chapman could enter the enclosure, experts said it a thied is detemined to enter somebody’s house, no security system can prevent that. Dr Campbell Murn, a previous member of the government’s zoo expert committee and lecturer at the University of Reading, said while it was a tragic incident, determined people could get inside zoo enclosures.“I view it in the same way a determined thief will get into somebody’s house or somebody’s car and despite the best security systems and enclosures sometimes these things happen,” he said.Amy Dickman, a professor of wildlife conservation and the director of WildCRU at the University of Oxford, told Guardian: “I would not conclude that there was a major issue with zoo safety – the harsh reality is that it is virtually impossible for zoos to stop people who are very determined to breach safety measures.”An eyewitness told BBC News that she saw Chapman pacing around with his headphones in by the tiger enclosure. Then she saw him climbing up onto the barriers. When the tiger grabbed him, he was shouting for help. Some people attempted to distract the tiger but people were confused as they did not understand what was going on.Chapman was a former student of the Jackie Palmer Stage School in High Wycombe. As a child, he appeared in the ITV production May Contain Nuts alongside Shirley Henderson – who is best known for playing Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films – and Darren Boyd. He also portrayed Edward Jenner in the BBC series True Stories, BBC reported.
