Man mauled by tiger at Bronx Zoo

NEW YORK – A man was mauled by a 400-pound tiger at the Bronx Zoo on Friday after he leaped from a moving monorail train and plummeted over a protective fence.

The man was alone with the tiger for about 10 minutes before he was rescued by zoo officials, who used a fire extinguisher to chase it away. He suffered bites and punctures on his arms, legs, shoulders and back and broke an arm and a leg.

The tiger mauling happened at around 3 p.m. in the Wild Asia exhibit, where a train with open sides takes visitors through a forest, where they glide along the top edge of a fence past elephants, deer and a tiger enclosure.

Passengers aren’t strapped in on the ride, and the man apparently jumped out of his train car with a leap powerful enough to clear the 16-foot-high perimeter fence.

The man was mauled by an 11-year-old male Siberian tiger named Bashuta, which has been at the zoo for three years.

A hospital spokeswoman said the 25-year-old man was in stable condition on Friday night, but his family has requested that no further information be released. Officials believe he was visiting the zoo by himself.

The tiger that mauled the man will not be euthanized, zoo officials said.

“The tiger did nothing wrong in this episode,” zoo director Jim Breheny said.