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Video shared by Bridgeton police on Tuesday, Aug. 20 shows the incident from the tiger exhibit at the Cohanzick Zoo. Officers didn't say when the incident happened.
The 16-second clip shows the female putting her hand through wire fencing and trying to pet the tiger. The big cat then appears to try biting the female's hand and starts frantically pacing.
The female then backs away from the wiring and climbs back over the wooden fence on the outside of the exhibit. Police said a city ordinance makes it illegal to go over a fence at the zoo.
Cohanzick's website said the zoo has two Bengal tigers named Rishi and Mahesha. The brothers were born in a litter of five at a North Carolina zoo on Friday, Sept. 30. 2016.
The tigers were donated to Cohanzick in January 2017 and they were the zoo's first tigers after its two white tigers died about two years earlier.
"In memory of those two tigers, Ganesha and Shiva, the zoo chose names for the cubs to honor them," the tigers' website biography said. "Former zoo coordinator Kelly Shaw explained that Mahesha means "great lord" and is another way to say Shiva, and Rishi means “poet” in Hindu, which is a connection to Ganesha, the name of the Hindu god known as the patron of arts, letters, and writing."
Anyone with information about the tiger enclosure intruder should call Bridgeton police at 856-451-0033 or submit an anonymous tip online.
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