Showing posts with label tiger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tiger. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tiger truths? Not from zoos or TV shows

By Nirmal Ghosh, Thailand Correspondent

Some years ago, on a now memorable New Year's Eve, I was walking with two friends in a dense jungle in northern India when a wild tiger growled at us from a distance of about 4m.

We kept our cool and simply walked away. The tiger, which had been disturbed while taking its afternoon snooze, sent us an unmistakable signal with a series of menacing growls - but it did not attack.

Had we panicked, run and inevitably fallen in the undergrowth, we would have spooked it and it would have lashed out at us, and I would most probably not be alive today to write this piece.

Whatever the species, animals act for a reason, even if that reason is not readily apparent to humans.

A tiger in its natural state would avoid humans. But if it did encounter a human and it felt threatened, it would first try to drive the human away with a short charge and a series of snarls, designed to intimidate the human into backing off. It would feel threatened if the human made any abrupt move or sound.

If the human did not back down in the face of its threat, but continued to agitate it, the tiger might well attack.

Mr Nordin Montong would have known all this. The 32-year-old from Sarawak, a contract cleaner at the Singapore Zoo, chose a path that would inevitably lead to his own death when he entered the white tigers' enclosure on Nov 13.

The white tigers might not have intended to kill him. They were probably just defending themselves against a perceived threat. As captive-bred tigers, they would have had little or no experience of killing. But just a mauling from such powerful animals would normally be enough to cause severe injuries that could easily lead to death.

Tigers are like all cats big and small - predators by nature even if they have little experience of killing. Prey that runs around, struggles or tries to get away would excite them further, and they would continue to maul this prey until it grew still. Tigers behave no differently from a household cat playing with a ball of string or a mouse.

Yet, at least one visitor to the zoo thought at first that the dreadful scene in the tiger enclosure was a 'show'. Following the tragedy, there has been a scramble to find out more about tigers in order to explain what happened.

It is ironic that after the millions of hours of programming that have been run on TV channels such as Discovery, Animal Planet and National Geographic, we are still far from understanding the realities of nature.

Further, the role that zoos perform arguably does not help us bridge that distance; it might even reinforce the divide.

The days of the measured wildlife documentary are regrettably almost over. TV networks today have to compete with a range of media determined to use shock tactics to draw in audiences whose attention span is decreasing in direct proportion to the increase in news that feeds on and emphasises conflict, sensation, titillation and the bizarre.

Whether a khaki-clad TV personality wading into a swamp and pulling out an anaconda from the water is a true reflection of reality is questionable. Most of the viewing public would not know that, invariably, such scenes are rigged. Snakes and other animals used to produce such sequences are usually already habituated to humans.

It is doubtful whether showing the general public scenes that would not occur in real life furthers their understanding of nature.

The trend towards sensationalism, with ever-increasing scenes of predation and aggression hogging the screens, exploded in the 1990s because of the proliferation of network TV and the competition for audiences.

But the compulsion to sensationalise emerged long before that. In the early 1900s, British writer and cinematographer Cherry Kearton wrote: 'People who try to give us 'sensation' both in films and books appear to imagine that... the wild life of animals is sadly in need of a little 'gingering up'.'

Wildlife is often portrayed as strange, exotic and dangerous, or conversely, cute and cuddly. Both views are distortions.

Animals need not be feared, but they need to be respected, just as much as people respect one another and give one another space.

Zoos, unfortunately, use wildlife as exhibits. White tigers are one example; they have been selectively bred for commercial purposes.

Essentially, white tigers are inbred, and there have been many deaths and deformities in cubs in the process.

Since the original white tiger was captured as a cub from the wild in central India in 1951, there have been only a handful of purported sightings of white tigers in the wild. What value is there in displaying a white tiger in a zoo, therefore, if not as some sort of freak show?

Singapore's zoo does a better job than almost any other in the world of keeping its exhibits in sound condition and also of educating the public.

But the bottom line is that animals in zoos are usually bored and often stressed; captivity is captivity even if the cell is a five-star enclosure.

As a result, zoos often only reinforce people's sense of separateness from nature, contributing to rather than reducing a general lack of understanding of the essential character of nature.

There was some encouraging news in the public response to the tragedy in Singapore. During a New Paper poll of 100 people, 99 said the tigers should not be punished in any way. Many have pointed out that the tigers behaved according to instinct. Senegalese poet-conservationist Baba Dioum famously said: 'In the end, we will conserve only what we love and we will love only what we understand.'

It is questionable whether breeding species selectively for entertainment and exhibition in zoos, and emphasising bizarre and sensational aspects of wildlife in the media, will further our knowledge of the world around us.

nirmal@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 23 Nov, 2008.


Tiger truths? Not from zoos or TV shows
AsiaOne, Singapore
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Friday, November 21, 2008

Shocking Video: White Tigers Maul Man To Death At Singapore Zoo

by Jim BroganThe Post Chronicle

Three white tigers are responsible for mauling a Malaysian to death in Singapore's zoo last Thursday. The tigers attacked the man after he jumped into their enclosure, a zoo official said.

Malaysian Nordin Bin Montong, 32, was working as a cleaner at the zoo, leapt into the moat of the white tiger exhibit and was attacked, said assistant director of zoology at the Singapore Zoo -- Biswajit Guha -- in a statement.

Zookeepers nearby were alerted by the noise from the attack and they eventually managed to distract the tigers and free Nordin.

"Keepers managed to separate the worker from the tiger. While waiting for the ambulance, our vets attended to him," said Guha. "The worker tragically succumbed to his wound."

According to Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, Nordin was seen behaving in an aggravated manner before he entered the moat. Horrified visitors near the section observed the vicious attack and screamed, the paper said.

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click here :Shocking Video: White Tigers Maul Man To Death At Singapore Zoo
Post Chronicle
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Singapore Zoo: White tiger attack posted online

A week after Singapore zoo cleaner Nordin Montong's death as a result of him jumping into the white tiger enclosure and being attacked by the animals, video footage of the 32-year-old being set upon by two of the three big cats in the enclosure have surfaced online.

The video which was obviously taken by visitors to the Singapore Zoo was very recently posted on a number of video sharing sites.

Though the family of the dead man have already seen a version of the video, this is the first time that video footage of the attack has been made available to the public.

In the 46 second clip, you can see one of the tigers biting Nordin Montong. Shouting and sirens can also be heard in the background as those present try to distract the tigers.

Towards the end of the clip, the zoo staff comes up to stop the visitors from filming the horrific scene.

Now the question is, as one AsiaOne reader puts it if the posting of this footage was done in in bad taste and 'disrespectful' due to the graphic and gory nature of the incident. source:White tiger attack posted online
AsiaOne, Singapore

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Singapore Zoo Tiger: He fights tooth and nail to stay alive

GAPS in the first video of cleaner Nordin Montong's mauling by two white tigers at the Singapore Zoo left unanswered a critical question:

Did the 32-year-old have a change of heart after jumping into the enclosure?

Now, a new video has emerged of Thursday's incident from another eye-witness.

And it reveals Mr Nordin's desperate fight to save himself, first by trying to get up and back into the moat, then by kicking one of the two tigers.

Aziz Ansari, 16, who is waiting for his O-levels results, filmed the initial part of the horrific attack with his handphone.

'Initially, he was walking towards the tigers quite willingly,' said Aziz. 'But after the first attack, I think he realised the impact of it.'

The clip started with Aziz and his six friends at the white tiger exhibit joking about how far tigers could jump.

The next shot was of the tigers' enclosure, which showed Mr Nordin wading in the moat, attracting the attention of one, then two tigers, and getting pawed by them.

Mr Nordin was clearly taken by surprise by the ferocity of the attack. His right hand, holding onto a broomstick, was shaking.

Aziz and his friends made repeated calls to Mr Nordin to 'get into the water'.

Mr Nordin seemed to hear them because he made a sudden and desperate attempt to jump back into the water.

But the two tigers were too fast and too strong. Both cats clawed at him with their huge paws and knocked him down onto the stone ledge.

One cat bit the scruff of Mr Nordin's neck to prevent him from escaping and tried to drag him further into the enclosure.

Mr Nordin struggled violently to be free of the cat's grip, even kicking the cat at one point.

Held down

Held down by the powerful cats, he then covered his head with the yellow pail that he was holding.

Then he stopped moving, seemingly paralysed in a foetal position, despite repeated calls by the public for him to get into the water.

The clip, which is just under two minutes long, ended there.

Said Aziz: 'I could see his face and he was shouting and screaming. Then I knew that something terrible had happened.'

He had first thought that Mr Nordin was going to feed the tigers because he was holding onto a pail while in the water.

But when the tigers started attacking him, he realised that this was no show.

Aziz said they shouted themselves hoarse trying to encourage Mr Nordin to escape.

He said: 'I could tell that he (Mr Nordin) was trying to escape. He looked like he had changed his mind.'

here
AsiaOne, Singapore

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Singapore Zoo Tiger: Tiger attack caught on camera phones

> Zoo cleaner Nordin Montong’s final few minutes before he was mauled by three white tigers at the Singapore Zoo have been captured on camera phones and circulated on the Internet, reported Harian Metro.

Nordin, 32, died in the attack by the tigers last Thursday.

One of the witnesses, student Nizam Zainal, 16, said he thought the cleaner was one of the performers for the animal show.

Nizam said Nordin appeared calm until one of the tigers “slapped” him with such force that he fell onto his knees, causing visitors to shout in panic.

The video and images circulating on the Internet show one of the animals sinking its teeth into Nordin’s neck as the other two tigers ap­­proached.

In another video clip recorded by Aziz Ansari, 16, the victim was seen trying to escape the attack by kicking the tiger.

Aziz said he saw Nordin trying to jump into the moat but failed as he was blocked by the other two tigers.

Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a sub-heading, it denotes a separate news item.

here ...
Malaysia Star, Malaysia
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Singapore Zoo Tiger:Curiosity thrills at the cats' enclosure

Gawkers head for re-opened tiger exhibit at the Singapore Zoo

By Benson Ang
November 20, 2008

QUIETLY, the white tigers were allowed to prowl their enclosure again.

Click to see larger image
PREDATORS: The white tigers seem more menacing now, say some visitors. TNP PICTURES: KELVIN CHNG

There were no public announcements, no fanfare by the Singapore Zoo.

And still they came, curious over the cats.

The white tiger exhibit re-opened at the zoo yesterday and, when The New Paper visited it at 4pm, there was a sombre mood in the air.

From afar, it looked as if nothing had changed. We could still lean onto the wooden fence barricading the enclosure.

The exhibit looked the same, with all three tigers on the main rock. Two were lying down, and the other was pacing up and down the rocky stretch.

It was as if there never was a mauling of a man by two of the tigers there last Thursday, before scores of shocked onlookers.

Click to see larger image
SNAP: Visitors are back at the tiger exhibit and spending more time at it.

But a closer look revealed something different. The visitors, about 20 of them, were quieter. We saw only one woman who was in a light-hearted mood.

When she was posing for a photograph, she curled her fingers into a claw and mimicked a ferocious tiger.

She looked Asian but it is not known if she knew about the death of cleaner Nordin Montong, 32, or whether she was a tourist. When we approached her, even she walked away, embarrassed.

Apart from the children, most visitors appeared serious. They talked among themselves in hushed tones. Some did not venture past the sheltered area of the exhibit, preferring to watch the tigers from afar.

Even a group of students from the Singapore Sports School, who were there on a school trip, talked very little among themselves.

They were about the same age as the students who filmed Mr Nordin death. And they were all aware of the attack.

Student Prakash Arasu, 15, said: 'Before, the tigers were like normal animals. Now, we want to see more of them.'

He visited the enclosure earlier that afternoon on a guided tour. When the students were given some time to roam around, he returned to the white tiger enclosure with three friends.

'I feel like I was returning to the scene of a crime. The shadow of the guy's death still lingers in the air.

'The tigers look fiercer, scarier, now.'

Before that, Prakash last saw the white tiger enclosure two months ago. There were fewer people then, he said.

His friend, Bryan Ashwin, 14, who visits the zoo three times a year, also said that there were more people yesterday than on usual days 'because of the publicity, because of what happened'.

'Last time, people just walked by. Now, they're coming in, and pointing to where the guy jumped down, and at which angle he fell.

'I think of all the animals, everyone will spend the longest time watching the white tigers.'

Bryan added that he used to look upon the tigers as majestic creatures. 'But now, when the tiger looks at me, a chill runs down my spine.

'The way they behave now is different. It is as if they are expecting someone to enter their home again.'

He felt that the exhibit was opened too soon.

'It was a national shock. Someone should really take a look into the safety precautions of the enclosure before opening it again. I expected the exhibit to be closed for at least three weeks.'

Others, like German tourist Grit Leonhardt, 38, were indifferent. She said: 'The tiger is a predator. It's in its nature to attack someone in front of it. It's neither more ferocious, nor less.'

Mr Subash Chandran, curator of zoology at the zoo, said the re-opening was not publicised in any way.

'Visitor numbers have been healthy since the weekend owing to the start of the Singapore school holidays,' he said.

'We have increased patrols at the area and are also reviewing the possibility of setting up alarms at various points within the park so that visitors can sound the alarm should they need help.'

Curiosity thrills at the cats' enclosure
Electric New Paper, Singapore
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Singapore Zoo Tiger: It's painful, but we have peace at last



Wed, Nov 19, 2008
The New Paper

IT was painful to watch and it brought fresh tears.

But in watching the video of Malaysian Nordin Montong's last moments, his family has found peace and closure.

The 32-year-old cleaner was mauled to death in the Singapore Zoo's white tiger enclosure last Thursday.

His elder sister, Madam Nora Montong, 34, had repeatedly asked to see the video, which was taken by a group of teens who were at the viewing gallery when the attack took place.

The family wanted to see with their own eyes what had taken place on that fateful day.

Madam Nora could not believe that her brother had jumped into the enclosure on his own accord.

When interviewed over the phone from Kuching, Sarawak, on Friday, she had said: 'Maybe he got pushed? Maybe he was in a fight? We can't accept it.'


After much dilemma, we decided to show the clip only to family members, with the understanding that they could stop it at any time if they found the images too distressing.

Before the video was shown, Madam Nora, who sells food for a living, said in Malay: 'Of course we want to know what happened. So far, we've only heard the accounts of others.

'Although there have been photos in the papers, we still don't know the full picture.

'All sorts of possibilities and speculations have gone through our minds. We want to see it with our own eyes to satisfy ourselves.'

In the end, Madam Nora and her two younger sisters, Aida, 28, and Norazeana, 23, watched the whole clip, which lasts almost four minutes, not once, but twice in Madam Aida's home.

When Madam Aida, an assistant welfare officer, saw the tiger striking Mr Nordin, she cringed and said repeatedly in Malay: 'Oh God!'

She then broke down in tears, putting her hand to her mouth. Miss Norazeana also started crying.

Shrank from screen

When the attack became more intense, the two sisters were clearly shocked. Their upper bodies shrank away from the screen even as their eyes were glued to what was unfolding.

Only Madam Nora remained cool, motioning her sisters to stay calm while she leaned forward to hear what Mr Nordin was saying.

She observed: 'He was afraid. He asked for help. He was in pain.'

When the clip was over, she asked to see it again, with the volume turned to maximum.

The sisters then saw the beginning of the clip for the third time, pausing and analysing each frame until the part where the tiger struck Mr Nordin down.

They all remarked that he was not himself in the way that he had aggressively approached the tigers with his arms raised and outstretched.

Madam Aida said: 'He has never acted like that. It's so strange. He seemed unaware of himself, like he was under a spell or possessed.'

They could not take seeing the rest of the clip for the third time.

It was only when reflecting on what she had seen that Madam Nora started crying.

With tears streaming down her face, she said: 'As a sister, what gives me peace is that he was praising God with his last breath. That's most important for us.'

They no longer have niggling doubts about him being pushed into the enclosure.

Miss Norazeana, who graduated recently, said: 'We accept what happened. We can't blame anyone.'

At the same time, they firmly rule out the possibility of suicide.

Madam Aida said: 'There are easier ways to die, he didn't have to go into the enclosure.'

Madam Nora agreed: 'He was struggling and shouting for help. If he wanted to die, he would have just surrendered himself to the tigers.'

Do they wonder why Mr Nordin was behaving so strangely when he entered the enclosure?

Madam Nora said: 'I've heard of hauntings at the zoo. Of course, we don't want to believe everything we hear.

'Suffice to say, this is his fate. We each have to die in our own way. Only God knows how it's going to be.'

The sisters do not plan to tell their parents about what they had seen until after the hundred days of mourning.

Madam Nora said: 'They think it was an accident, so we will let them carry on thinking that.

'They are both not that healthy and my mother, especially, is very distraught because Nordin was her favourite child. I don't want to add to their grief.'

The sisters are glad that they saw the video.

Madam Aida said: 'Before this, there were so many different stories, we didn't know what to believe. Now that we've seen and heard for ourselves, we can accept his death.

'No matter what other people say, we know the truth.'


It's painful, but we have peace at last
AsiaOne, Singapore
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Singapore Zoo Tiger: Why should people suffer?

Elysa Chen Tue, Nov 18, 2008
The New Paper


HE was so angry when he heard the news of cleaner Nordin Montong's death that Mr Ramson Ali applied for leave to visit the zoo the next day.

And when the 42-year-old got there, he went around doing a 'personal audit' of the zoo, inspecting the barriers and the safety measures adopted there.

He was not just being a busybody. Mr Ramson, a consultant in the food and beverage industry, told The New Paper on Sunday that he was angry because his own niece had been seriously hurt in a zoo accident two years ago.

He said: 'Such things should never happen. I was shocked when I heard the news and I thought about my niece. Something must be done to improve the level of safety at the zoo.'

On 5 Oct 2006, Mr Ramson's niece, Miss Ernie Fazlihana Ismail, was attacked by a rhinoceros while working as a zookeeper in the Night Safari, an extension of the Singapore Zoo.

The two-tonne animal had charged at Miss Ernie, then 24 years old, apparently after being startled by a camera flash from a visitor.

She and her male colleague had been feeding the rhino. After the flash, the animal charged at Miss Ernie, knocking her from the back and trampling on her.

Her male colleague dislocated his right shoulder while trying to distract the animal. Other zookeepers eventually evacuated Miss Ernie and her colleague.

Miss Ernie's thigh was so badly fractured after the attack that she needed surgery. Mr Ramson said the rhinoceros' horn had also gored his niece's thigh, leaving a big hole in her leg.

He said: 'After the accident, my niece could not walk for one year.'

Miss Ernie has recovered and is back in the zoo working in its office, Mr Ramson said, but he is not sure what position she holds.

He said: 'Others may have blamed the animals, but she didn't blame the animals at all. She was just angry at those people who did not follow the rules.'

Though Mr Ramson concedes that the death of Mr Nordin is unlike the incident involving his niece, he and his wife believe extra safety precautions should have been put in place.

He said: 'For enclosures with dangerous animals, there should be more barricades between the visitors and the animals, such as a glass barrier which can still allow people to see the animals. This way, no one will hurt themselves in the zoo.'

Gesturing to the fence at the white tigers' exhibit, behind which visitors would stand, Mr Ramson, who visits the zoo three times a year, said: 'Look at the barrier. It barely comes up to someone's waist. You never know, in a split second, a child who has never seen these animals may get too excited, climb on the ledge, and fall in. Then it's game-over.'

Agreeing, Mrs Ramson, 31, a grooming consultant, said that while she liked the open concept of the zoo, she believes that security could be improved by stationing more zookeepers around animal enclosures.

She said: 'When we visited a zoo in Australia, there were zookeepers stationed everywhere. Here, it is too quiet in certain corners of the zoo.'

She suggested that zookeepers could wear a device that would alert the office once they crossed a boundary, so that staff members could be activated immediately once any accident occurs.

On top of that, Mrs Ramson felt that employees at the zoo should undergo psychological tests, and heads of departments should monitor the emotional well-being of staff members before letting them go to work.

The zoo has already said that it plans to review its safety procedures.

Spokesman Biswajit Guha, the zoo's assistant director of zoology, said that the zoo may consider installing a trip-wire along the fence of the white tiger enclosure.

It is already considering increasing the frequency of patrols. Right now, there are 80 staff members patrolling the zoo at any one time.

Ms Isabel Cheng, director of sales marketing and communication at Wildlife Reserves Singapore, the zoo's parent company, said that zookeepers have been briefed to be on the lookout for people who look troubled. External contractors such as the one that Mr Nordin was working for would also be briefed to do the same, she said.

Mr Ramson said: 'What everyone has learnt after the latest incident is the importance of educating people to be responsible, for yourself and others around you - whether it is about not using camera flash in the zoo, or endangering yourself unnecessarily.

'Perhaps the zoo could conduct briefings and educate everyone on this, before letting people go in, whether they are workers or visitors.'


Why should people suffer?
AsiaOne, Singapore
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Singapore Zoo: It's painful, but we have peace at last

DEATH AT THE ZOO

Sisters cringe and cry watching video of tiger attack


IT was painful to watch and it brought fresh tears.

Click to see larger image
TOO PAINFUL: (From left) Madam Aida, Madam Nora and Miss Norazeana, with reporter Teh Jen Lee in green, in tears after watching the video. PICTURES: MOHD ISHAK SAMON

But in watching the video of Malaysian Nordin Montong's last moments, his family has found peace and closure.

The 32-year-old cleaner was mauled to death in the Singapore Zoo's white tiger enclosure last Thursday.

His elder sister, Madam Nora Montong, 34, had repeatedly asked to see the video, which was taken by a group of teens who were at the viewing gallery when the attack took place.

The family wanted to see with their own eyes what had taken place on that fateful day.

Madam Nora could not believe that her brother had jumped into the enclosure on his own accord.

When interviewed over the phone from Kuching, Sarawak, on Friday, she had said: 'Maybe he got pushed? Maybe he was in a fight? We can't accept it.'

Click to see larger image

After much dilemma, we decided to show the clip only to family members, with the understanding that they could stop it at any time if they found the images too distressing.

Before the video was shown, Madam Nora, who sells food for a living, said in Malay: 'Of course we want to know what happened. So far, we've only heard the accounts of others.

'Although there have been photos in the papers, we still don't know the full picture.

'All sorts of possibilities and speculations have gone through our minds. We want to see it with our own eyes to satisfy ourselves.'

In the end, Madam Nora and her two younger sisters, Aida, 28, and Norazeana, 23, watched the whole clip, which lasts almost four minutes, not once, but twice in Madam Aida's home.

When Madam Aida, an assistant welfare officer, saw the tiger striking Mr Nordin, she cringed and said repeatedly in Malay: 'Oh God!'

She then broke down in tears, putting her hand to her mouth. Miss Norazeana also started crying.

Shrank from screen

When the attack became more intense, the two sisters were clearly shocked. Their upper bodies shrank away from the screen even as their eyes were glued to what was unfolding.

Only Madam Nora remained cool, motioning her sisters to stay calm while she leaned forward to hear what Mr Nordin was saying.

She observed: 'He was afraid. He asked for help. He was in pain.'

When the clip was over, she asked to see it again, with the volume turned to maximum.

The sisters then saw the beginning of the clip for the third time, pausing and analysing each frame until the part where the tiger struck Mr Nordin down.

They all remarked that he was not himself in the way that he had aggressively approached the tigers with his arms raised and outstretched.

Madam Aida said: 'He has never acted like that. It's so strange. He seemed unaware of himself, like he was under a spell or possessed.'

They could not take seeing the rest of the clip for the third time.

It was only when reflecting on what she had seen that Madam Nora started crying.

With tears streaming down her face, she said: 'As a sister, what gives me peace is that he was praising God with his last breath. That's most important for us.'

They no longer have niggling doubts about him being pushed into the enclosure.

Miss Norazeana, who graduated recently, said: 'We accept what happened. We can't blame anyone.'

At the same time, they firmly rule out the possibility of suicide.

Madam Aida said: 'There are easier ways to die, he didn't have to go into the enclosure.'

Madam Nora agreed: 'He was struggling and shouting for help. If he wanted to die, he would have just surrendered himself to the tigers.'

Do they wonder why Mr Nordin was behaving so strangely when he entered the enclosure?

Madam Nora said: 'I've heard of hauntings at the zoo. Of course, we don't want to believe everything we hear.

'Suffice to say, this is his fate. We each have to die in our own way. Only God knows how it's going to be.'

The sisters do not plan to tell their parents about what they had seen until after the hundred days of mourning.

Madam Nora said: 'They think it was an accident, so we will let them carry on thinking that.

'They are both not that healthy and my mother, especially, is very distraught because Nordin was her favourite child. I don't want to add to their grief.'

The sisters are glad that they saw the video.

Madam Aida said: 'Before this, there were so many different stories, we didn't know what to believe. Now that we've seen and heard for ourselves, we can accept his death.

'No matter what other people say, we know the truth.'


Yes, let them watch video for closure

SIX readers responded yesterday to Teh Jen Lee's commentary, 'Please let us watch attack video' in The New Paper on Sunday, in which she voiced the dilemma of whether to show Mr Nordin Montong's family the tiger attack video clip.

The family had asked to see it because they wanted to know what had happened. All readers said the family should view the video clip.

It's painful, but we have peace at last
Electric New Paper, Singapore
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Monday, November 17, 2008

Photo: Man killed by white tigers at Singapore Zoo

The man, who works as a cleaner at the zoo, had jumped into the enclosure and agitated the tigers.
Photos courtesy of Nizam Zainal, Reuters and ST.




















May god bless his soul.
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Singapore Zoo: Man uncaged and dangerous




by Tay Yek Keak

CHILLS would surely have run down your spine when you saw the photograph: Two enormous white tigers hovering over a cowering man who would soon die.

The man had a pail over his head. It looked so strange, so horrific, so surreal, that you would have a hard time believing it happened.


But now, as the initial shock of the tragic incident at the Singapore zoo wears off, come the questions.

Could the man have been saved? Should the animals be destroyed? Can we make the enclosure harder to climb into? There may be some debate over these questions, but definitive conclusions can be found and the matter will eventually be put to rest.

But one perplexing question will remain, eluding all attempts to find an answer. It's an unpredictable time bomb which we cannot understand: Why did the man do what he did? We will never know. The victim took the answer to his grave.

The widely-held view is that he chose to kill himself in this fashion. That raises other questions. How can we stop a man from inflicting harm on himself? How do we prevent such self-destruction? If we extend these questions to a wider context, we could also ask: How do we stop a suicide bomber?

This is the essential problem: How can we save a human being from himself? It is a question as old as time, and one that will continue to challenge us in the future. Simply because the problem has no real answer.

More disturbingly, this incident at the zoo adds a new wrinkle to the age-old puzzle. A man walked to his doom, into a pen of deadly beasts. He did not kill himself with a man-made contraption, such as an onrushing train.

Often, we assume that wild creatures are unknowable; that their actions are unpredictable. But in this case, the animals acted on instinct; they reacted on impulse when they pounced upon the poor man.

Compared to him, the animals behaved more rationally than he did.

Elsewhere in the world, similar incidents involving humans have occurred in zoos. Last December, at the San Francisco Zoo, three men allegedly taunted a tiger which later escaped from its enclosure and killed one of them.

And early last month in Alice Springs, Australia, a little boy was caught on camera behaving with shocking cruelty towards animals.

He had broken into a reptile exhibit and was seen feeding live animals to a crocodile. He is only seven years old. Within the 30-minute killing spree, he also bashed several lizards to death with a rock. Most chillingly, in the video footage, the boy's face remained largely blank.

"It was as though he was playing a game," said the zoo's director.

These acts are unexplainable. By contrast, an animal is easy to understand. A tiger is a tiger. Aggravate it and it will do exactly what it does every time.

Yes, our zoo could do more to enhance the security of its enclosures. Not to keep the animals in but, ironically, to keep the humans out. It is quite illogical that it has come to this.

But this is necessary because of one thing that will never change. The nature of the beast may be explainable, but the nature of man is something that we can never understand.


Man uncaged and dangerous
AsiaOne, Singapore
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Singapore Zoo: Sorry, no tiger show yet

Sorry, no tiger show yet
Jessica Lim
News Reporter




Jessica Lim gives an update on why the White Tiger exhibit is still closed.

THREE days after last Thursday's shocking tiger attack on a zoo cleaner, the exhibit is still closed and people are still talking.

Comments stream in on on-line blogs and news websites. Some express their condolences, others question the zoo's response to emergencies.

Still others, out of morbid curiosity, requested for copies of the video footage.

Today's schedule at the Singapore Zoo? Two counselling sessions for keepers involved and further monitoring of the rare white tigers.

When I called for an update on the situation there earlier today, a spokesman told me that the tigers "seemed fine" but extra precautions were being taken to "make sure the signs of stress" are "totally gone" and that "the white tigers were comfortable and eating well".

What happened?

The tigers had been traumatised by the incident on Thursday as keepers and members of the public hurled items - including umbrellas and clay balls (from eight safety boxes located around the zoo) - in an attempt to distract the animals away from 32-year-old cleaner Nordin Montong, who died from the attack.

On top of that, the assistant director of the zoo Biswajit Guha told me that the white tigers - on loan from Indonesia - had never made physical contact with a human being since they were brought here seven years ago.

"They had not experienced anything like it before," he said.

The tiger exhibit is likely to reopen later in the week.

Sorry, no tiger show yet
Straits Times, Singapore
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Singapore Zoo: Thank you for bringing my son home

Tearful mum thanks Singaporeans for bringing body home for burial

SHE hugged me. She sobbed, inconsolably, onto my shoulders.

Click to see larger image
PICTURES: MOHD ISHAK SAMON

I was a complete stranger at the funeral of Malaysian cleaner Nordin Montong, 32, who was mauled to death in the white tiger enclosure of the Singapore Zoo on Thursday.

And yet, I was regarded as a friend.

Perhaps it was because I brought some answers that helped bring them some closure. Or perhaps, I came from a country where her son sought hope for a brighter future.

Mr Nordin's burial took place in the Kampung Sambir Muslim cemetery, more than an hour's drive from Kuching, Sarawak.

Although I had not been introduced to Mr Nordin's mother, Madam Baduyah Ahad, the 52-year-old came up to me after the funeral, held onto me and cried for about half a minute.

She sobbed in Malay: 'Thank you for bringing my son back.' I found myself shedding tears too.

Madam Baduyah was closest to Mr Nordin among her six children because he was the eldest son. He had called her on Thursday morning. And he sounded fine.

A few hours later, he was dead, having suffered a fractured skull and multiple bite wounds to his neck.

Click to see larger image

I watched as Madam Baduyah's gazed lovingly at her son's battered face. She had to be held up by her daughter and several relatives.

The rest of his body was wrapped in white cloth. After that last look, he was lowered to the ground.

Mr Nordin's body had been flown to Kuching International Airport yesterday afternoon, accompanied by the operations director of Sun City Maintenance, the cleaning company that had hired him.

About a dozen people were waiting at the cargo terminal to receive the body, including Mr Nordin's father, Mr Montong Sahom, 54, his mother, and close relatives.

Many were red-eyed from crying.

The company's operations director, who gave his name only as Jason, shook hands with Mr Montong and said: 'I'm sorry. No one wanted this to happen. We just want to be here for you.

'I know him (Nordin) very well. I worked with him very closely. It hurts me a lot, that's why I'm here.'

He told reporters that police are still investigating the incident.

Jason said: 'He was an exemplary worker. He was more than what you could ask for in a worker. He wouldn't say no to working overtime. He was quite well-liked by his colleagues.

'My client, the zoo, liked him more than anyone else. When they tried to revive him through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and failed, grown-up men just collapsed and cried. That shows how much people liked him.'

Mr Nordin's body was taken to a mosque near the cemetery by van. There, prayers were said for him.

His 14-year-old nephew Mohd Shyaril was among those most shattered. 'We were close,' he said. 'We would play together when I was younger.'

The teen's mother, Madam Nora Montong, 34, is the elder sister of Mr Nordin. After a last look at her brother's body, Madam Nora said softly: 'We're sad, but we accept the reality of his death.'

All the members of Mr Nordin's family spoke only Malay.

Will there be real closure without knowing the full circumstances of his death?

Still puzzled

Many relatives and friends remained puzzled about what happened.

About 80 of them had gathered for the burial, which took place at about 5pm.

One of Mr Nordin's aunts, who declined to be named, said: 'When he was young, he spent a lot of time at my home. He was good, friendly and cheerful. He liked mixing with people.'

When we took out a copy of The New Paper that reported what happened, a crowd quickly gathered.

We kept the report, with its sequence pictures taken from a video, away from Mr Nordin's mother, in case she was not able to bear seeing pictures of the attack. Nothing was more important to her, at that moment, than taking a last look at his face.

Not how he died, not why he was in the enclosure.

'If I didn't see him, my heart would not be at rest,' she told me.

'Thank you so much for bringing him home.'

Thank you for bringing my son home
Electric New Paper, Singapore
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Sunday, November 16, 2008

Singapore Zoo: Tigers stressed by the incident ?



Tigers stressed by the incident

By Jessica Lim

THE two white tigers involved in Thursday's attack on a cleaner are exhibiting symptoms of stress.

Normally relaxed and languid, they are now on constant alert, zoo officials said yesterday.

Their ears are pricked up, and they are breathing heavily.

Cleaner's family in shock

By Diana Othman & Kimberly Spykerman

SINCE he arrived in Singapore in June, Mr Nordin Montong had called his mother three or four times a day.

He would ask her how the family was and if she had eaten. Little things, just to chat.

It was the same in his last call to her on Wednesday, the night before the 32-year-old cleaner from Sarawak climbed into a tiger enclosure at the Singapore Zoo and was mauled to death after he seemingly baited the big cats.

Zoo to beef up safety measures

Three steps being considered: alarm buttons, more patrols and CCTV cameras.

By Jessica Lim

THE Singapore Zoo will be rolling out a series of new security measures to prevent a recurrence of the incident on Thursday, in which a cleaner who jumped into the white tiger enclosure was killed by the big cats.

Three measures are being discussed: Installing alarms in glass housings that the public can set off, deploying more patrols, and setting up closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras near the exhibits of potentially dangerous animals.

The review of existing procedures was prompted by the death of cleaner Nordin Montong, 32, who managed to get into the enclosure and then provoked the white tigers into attacking him.

Tigers stressed by the incident
AsiaOne, Singapore

The rest:

The day after the tiger attack
Victim Of Tiger Attack Saving Money For Wedding
Tigers should stay
White tigers maul man to death in Singapore
They saw a sight too gruesome to recount
Zoo beefs up safety steps
Cleaner killed by zoo tigers
Tigers would have been shot if...
Zoo to beef up safety measures
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Singapore Zoo: 'I thought it was a show' , tiger attack

Tourist witnesses horrifying incident together with other shocked visitors

By Esther Tan



UNABLE TO HELP
'People were throwing things in to get (the tigers) away from the man. But it didn't work.'
Mr W. R. de Boer who managed to take pictures of the incident


FOR Dutchman W. R. de Boer, paying a visit to the Singapore Zoo yesterday was meant to be a relaxing book-end to a business trip.

Instead, the 40-year-old witnessed one of the most horrifying things he has ever seen.

The software consultant, who arrived in Singapore two weeks ago, was among about 30 others who saw zoo cleaner Nordin Montong, 32, mauled to death by two white tigers yesterday afternoon.

In an interview with The Straits Times, Mr de Boer said he was concentrating on taking pictures of the tigers, and only realised something was amiss when he heard others screaming.

'I turned and saw a man lying on the ground with a bucket over his head. He yelled and the tigers came towards him,' he recalled. 'I thought it was a show at first. But I knew it wasn't when the claws came out and there was blood.'

Mr de Boer said he saw one of the tigers hit the man with its paw and then attacked him.

'I couldn't see clearly whether the tiger attacked his back or his neck because he still had the bucket on his head,' he said.

By then, visitors standing around the enclosure were screaming for the tigers to go away. One of them even threw an umbrella in to distract the tigers, he noted. But it did not work.

'I was afraid for the man,' he said.

The screams of the onlookers alerted zookeepers, and they arrived shortly after.

From the viewing area, the keepers tried to use a pole to prod the tigers and distract them from Mr Nordin, but it was too short, and soon, one of the tigers pounced on the cleaner.

Mr de Boer also saw a keeper armed with a rifle, but no shots were fired. Despite the horror unfolding before him, he kept clicking away with his camera. He later provided The Straits Times with pictures of the attack. 'I don't know why I (took the photos). I wasn't thinking,' he said.

He took just a few pictures before keepers ushered him away and cordoned off the enclosure.

Yesterday, the zoo declined media requests to speak to the keepers involved in the incident.

The zoo's director of sales and marketing Isabel Cheng said that keepers involved in the incident were not in a position to speak to the media as they were traumatised by what had happened. They were receiving counselling from a psychologist.

Two other visitors to the zoo, an Australian couple, gave a similar account of what happened, said the zoo yesterday. The couple, whose identities were withheld by police, had video footage of the attack taken from them by police.

According to the zoo, they told police that they said they had earlier seen Mr Nordin shouting and throwing things as he walked by the crocodile enclosure, a short distance from the tiger enclosure.

Minutes later, as they arrived to view the white tigers, they heard a splash and looked down to see the Malaysian contract worker in the moat.

They told police it appeared that Mr Nordin had deliberately provoked the animals.

Contacted again last night, Mr de Boer, who leaves Singapore tomorrow, said he was overwhelmed by the day's events. 'It's not nice to see something like this on a holiday,' he said.

tansle@sph.com.sg

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Singapore Zoo: 4 minutes of terror, the tiger


4 minutes of terror

They had seen a man in the enclosure belonging to three white tigers. It's just an animal act, thought Nizam Zainal and his six friends.

Who in their right mind would jump into an enclosure with three wild tigers, armed with nothing but a pail and a broomstick?

So Nizam continued filming at the White Tiger exhibit with his video camera.

His group of friends were all prepared for a relaxing day at the zoo, despite the cold, drizzly weather.

All of them had just completed their O-level examinations and had been looking forward to this break.

It was a slow day at the zoo. Small pockets of tourists were strolling around. It was a weekday. And the weather was dreary.

SUDDENLY, HE HEARD A LOUD SPLASH.

The 16-year-old swung his video camera around and was surprised to see Mr Nordin Montong, 32, wading in the water.

'I turned and saw a man in the water, walking slowly with both his arms outstretched, with a pail and a broom in each hand.

'The man looked very calm and was shouting at the tigers, trying to attract their attention.'

It must be a zoo-keeper who was familiar with the tiger exhibit, he thought, still calm.

Tiger approaches

One of the tigers, clearly excited by the splash, sprinted towards the water to investigate the disturbance.

Mr Nordin coolly emerged from the water and walked up a stone ledge, coming face-to-face with the still calm but curious and waiting tiger.

Nizam thought for a moment that the tiger was familiar with Mr Nordin and had gone to welcome him.

PERHAPS THE TIGER WAS BEGGING FOR A SNACK, thought Nizam.

But the tiger suddenly swiped at Mr Nordin, to the horror of the 20-strong gawking, frightened crowd at the enclosure.

The blows brought Mr Nordin to his knees.

The huge cat then sank its teeth into the back of Mr Nordin's neck and tossed him around repeatedly like a ragdoll.

Then the second tiger crawled up the ledge.

Both tigers started to sniff at and circle Mr Nordin.

Nizam's friend, Fadzil Ramlee, also 16, shouted repeatedly to Mr Nordin: 'Dude, get into the water!'

Fadzil told The New Paper later. 'When he was being attacked, some people started screaming and shouting at him to get into the water.

'We also shouted at the tigers to distract them. One tourist threw his umbrella at the tigers but missed.'

His hands trembling, Fadzil continued shooting with his video camera, somewhat mesmerised by the vicious attack unfolding before his eyes.

Mr Nordin was then curled up on the stone ledge. He used the pail to cover his head.

The two tigers stood over him. Then they circled him, sniffed him - and began swiping at him repeatedly with their huge paws.

The tigers seemed distracted by the crowd's shouts and whistles, but they never left Mr Nordin's side.

This lasted a good two minutes.

The crowd swelled to more than 30 people, including some of the zoo's staff. One zookeeper tried to distract the tigers by using a long stick to hit the water.

Nizam said he didn't see any zoo staff armed with rifles.

Just when the crowd thought the tigers were distracted enough for Mr Nordin to be safe, one tiger suddenly grabbed him by the back of his neck and dragged him further into the enclosure.

The crowd screamed even louder at the two tigers, both in shock and horror, and in a desperate bid to distract the tigers.

The two tigers looked away, momentarily distracted by the crowd. Mr Nordin stood up but was quickly brought down again by the tigers.

One tiger started to bite Mr Nordin on his back repeatedly. The crowd cringed in horror.

Blood could be seen streaming from the wounds on his back. The tiger's mouth was also bloody. Mr Nordin was struggling and thrashing his legs about.

Then he became still.

That was Nizam's last glimpse of Mr Nordin.

Just before the four-minute clip ended, a third tiger emerge from the bushes.

Nizam and his friends were by then literally trembling. Nizam could no longer hold the camera steady.

They were ushered quickly out of the enclosure by the zoo-keepers, who then cordoned off the area.

The group remained quiet after that, traumatised by what they saw and captured on video.

Said Nizam: 'I didn't expect to shoot something so terrifying. It was so unreal.'

He said that his hand was shaking while he was shooting the entire scene, but for some reason, he couldn't put down the camera.

He said: 'It was emotional but I just couldn't put down the camera.'

The $1,100 video camera belongs to his father.

He said that he saw one girl crying, and holding on to her boyfriend while being led out of the enclosure.

The group continued their tour of the zoo, and returned to the enclosure about three hours later.

It was then that they learnt that the man had died from his injuries.

Said Fadzil: 'All of us thought that maybe the man was rescued and had only slight injuries.

'It's a terrible way to die.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on November 14, 2008.

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Singapore Zoo: The day after the tiger attack

Jessica Lim
News Reporter November 16, 2008 Sunday, 01:48 AM

Jessica Lim detects a kind of hush in the aftermath of a zoo cleaner's death.

ON the surface, it seemed to be business as usual at the Singapore Zoo on Friday - a day after cleaner Nordin Montong was mauled to death in the white tiger exhibit, shocking visitors and Singaporeans.

Tourists armed with maps explored the gardens with their cameras and sunshades, while children let out shrieks of excitement as they bathed in jets of water in the children's play area.

But look deeper, and it is another story.

On the visitor's tram, we drive past the white tiger enclosure and people start to whisper.

'This is where that Nordin guy got eaten by a tiger,' one said.

'Yes, that is why it's shut today. It is all over the news,' said another, as he craned his neck in an attempt to look into the enclosure.

In front of the enclosure, others are taking photos of the sign that read 'exhibit closed', and keepers speak to each other in hushed voices.

Tourists look at an empty white tiger enclosure at the Singapore Zoo after a man was mauled to death there. Source: AP

I ask them if they knew the 32-year-old Mr Nordin.

'We can't say anything, you better talk to the management,' they reply.

Behind the scenes, a team hurries to deal with what has happened.

Already, the management has met the victim's family. We were told that some form of compensation was offered.

And to prevent a recurrence, a slew of new safety measures would be rolled out in coming months. Think alarm buttons, more patrols and CCTV cameras.

But in the same breath, zoo officials reiterate that current measures are sufficient.

At the white tiger enclosure, for one, thick wooden railings and a plant bed overhang minimise the chances of a visitor falling into trouble.

What happened on Thursday, said zoo officials, was extraordinary.

'We cannot account for someone who intentionally scales the railing,' said official Ms Isabel Cheng with a sigh. 'We can do what we can for careless visitors, but it would be difficult for us to be 100 per cent secure for someone who wants to break into the exhibit.'

She brings up the analogy of a person with the intention of jumping off a block of flats.

'You can't stop them in that kind of situation can you? If the person wants to do it, they will find a way to,' she said.


The day after the tiger attack
Straits Times, Singapore
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Saturday, November 15, 2008

Singapore: White tigers maul Malaysian cleaner to death at zoo

A cleaner has been mauled to death by three white tigers after climbing into their enclosure at Singapore Zoo. Visitors watched in horror as Nordin Bin Montong, 32, a Malaysian, was attacked when he jumped into the moat of the white tiger area.

Biswajit Guha, assistant director of zoology at the Singapore Zoo said the noise of the attack caught the attention of nearby keepers and they eventually managed to distract the tigers and rescue Nordin.

Zoo vets fought to save the man but he died soon afterwards.

Mr Guha said: "Keepers managed to separate the worker from the tiger. While waiting for the ambulance, our vets attended to him.

"The worker tragically succumbed to his wound."

Local media reports said Nordin was seen behaving in an agitated manner before he leapt into the moat.

Mr Guha said the cleaner worked at the chimpanzee area and was on his lunch break when the tragedy happened.

"They saw him riding off on a bicycle and coming back in through the front entrance again, and then about five minutes later, the whole alert came on the walkie talkie," he said.

The man is said to have told colleagues: "Goodbye, I won't be seeing you again".

Staff were able to reach the him only once the tigers returned to their dens, leaving him in the passageway.

Visitors near the enclosure screamed and cried out for help as the watched the attack.

According to conservation group WWF, there are about 4,000 tigers left in the world and they are considered an endangered species.

White tigers are even rarer because they suffer from a genetic condition that strips their fur of the orange pigment, leaving the animal with snow white fur, black stripes and blue eyes.

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