A tiger mauled a female animal handler Monday at Dreamworld amusement park in Australia, CBS News reported, citing local officials.
Park staff tended to the bleeding wound until the ambulance came to take Melissa Reynolds, the 47-year-old handler, to the hospital, Queensland Ambulance Service director Justin Payne said, CBS News reported. The incident occurred around an hour before the park opened to the public.
Animal handler attacked by tiger at Australia theme park and rushed to hospital with serious wounds to her arm https://t.co/H7VPo6ANYq
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 2, 2024
“We were advised that at that location a 47-year-old female, an experienced handler, had been bitten by one of the tigers,” Payne said. “The patient obviously had received some serious lacerations and puncture wounds from the animal. She was quite pale and feeling unwell, but generally well.” (RELATED: REPORT: Tiger Eats Owl At Minnesota Zoo That Escaped From Handler)
Dreamworld amusement park features animal exhibits in addition to rides. The park hosts an attraction called Tiger Island, which houses nine Sumatran and Bengal tigers, according to Dreamworld’s website.
“There are approximately 4,000 tigers remaining in the wild and their survival is constantly threatened,” the website reads. The park noted that three subspecies of tigers were already extinct. The park described the incident with the handler as “isolated and rare” and vowed to “conduct a thorough review [into the incident] accordingly,” Sky News reported.
