Man attacked by tiger in England after entering enclosure at wildlife park

A man sustained serious injuries Saturday after entering the tiger enclosure at a wildlife park in northern England, police said.

The incident occurred at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park near the city of Doncaster at about 1:35 p.m., South Yorkshire Police said in a statement. The tigers remained inside the enclosure and there was no danger to the wider public, the force said.

The Yorkshire Ambulance Service said it dispatched two ambulances, an air ambulance and a doctor to attend the scene. Authorities didn’t immediately release information about the victim’s injuries.

“We are working closely with the authorities to ascertain exactly what happened,” the wildlife park said in a statement posted on its website.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park began operations in 2009, with its “Land of the Tigers” attraction opening in 2011.

The attraction is a purpose-built two-acre reserve for endangered Amur tigers, also known as Siberian tigers. The enclosure includes a 300-meter raised walkway that allows visitors to watch the big cats roam through woodlands and grasslands or playing in a waterfall pool, the park says on its website.

Visitors to several zoos and wildlife parks around the world have tried to enter tiger enclosures. A woman was caught in 2024 jumping over a fence and taunting a tiger at the Cohanzick Zoo in New Jersey. In 2016, a zookeeper was fatally attacked by a Malayan tiger at a Florida zoo when she entered the enclosure for the tigers’ night house, a medical examiner’s investigation found. 

Several years earlier, in 2012, a man jumped from an area near the monorail in the Bronx Zoo over two fences, including an electrified one, in one bound to get into the tiger enclosure, police said. He was severely injured in what appeared to be a suicide attempt, police said.