DEADLY ENCOUNTER

Zookeeper Dies Days After Being Mauled by Leopard

The woman had worked at the safari park for four decades.

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A veteran zookeeper has died days after she was mauled inside a leopard enclosure. The woman, who had worked at the Beekse Bergen park in the south of the Netherlands for 40 years, was caring for two Persian leopards in an indoor facility on Saturday when she was brutally attacked. She suffered injuries to her head and neck. Dutch news website NL Times reported that the woman alerted colleagues over her walkie-talkie before being flown to the hospital by helicopter in critical condition. She underwent emergency surgery, but the park confirmed her death on Tuesday. No CCTV cameras operate inside the enclosures, so the exact details of the attack remain unclear. An independent investigation will be launched. A park spokesperson told Omroep Brabant the leopards were acting on their instincts and will not be euthanized. “They are, and remain, predators.”