It is not the height of the wall that is the problem, it is the moat.
On Dec 25 2007, 1 teen was killed and 2 were injured at the San Francisco zoo when a Siberian Tiger scaled a 12 and half foot retaining wall and attacked the teens.
According to the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the walls around a tiger exhibit should be at least 16.4 feet high. This is a recommendation, not a regulation. The zoo has been inspected several times and never was it recommended the wall be raised.
The following picture is from the San Francisco Zoo. A moat separates the tiger compound from the 12.6 foot wall and the visitor fence.
As you can see from the above image, a 30 foot wide moat would allow a running tiger to reach its top speed of about 30mph, and with that momentum it could easily scale a 12.5 foot wall.
Yes, the wall would be to low, but isn’t a moat designed to be filled with water. If the moat was filled with even a couple feet of water, there is probably no way a tiger could scale the short wall.
The design of the compound included a moat and the wall height was adequate based on design. The Zoo said the moat was never filled with water. Since the Zoo failed to utilize the compound as designed, they should have raised the wall height. Either way, the Zoo appears to be liable.
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