The three-year-old male, who will not be put down, was brought to the park from Norway last year as part of a European conservation breeding programme.
Altai, a three-year-old Amur tiger at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, is at the centre of a tragedy after a man died in the tiger enclosure on Saturday afternoon. Emergency services were called shortly after 1.30pm, when the man entered the enclosure and was attacked by the tiger. South Yorkshire Police said he was pronounced dead at the scene despite the efforts of medical staff, and his family have been told. The park has confirmed that Altai will not be euthanised.
What has been confirmed
Police said the tiger was uninjured and remained inside the enclosure after the incident. An investigation is examining the circumstances in which the man entered it. Video of the incident has been circulating online, and South Yorkshire Police has asked people not to share the footage because of the distress it causes.
Earlier reports said the man’s condition was unconfirmed, and conflicting accounts circulated about whether the tiger was shot or scared away with gas canisters. The latest reports say only that the tiger was unharmed.
Altai’s background
Altai was born at Dyreparken, a zoo in Norway. He travelled more than 1,135 miles to join the park’s resident female, Tschuna. He arrived late on Thursday 27 February 2025. The park said he was calm and quiet when he arrived and in no hurry to leave his crate. Bex Brown, the park’s section head of carnivores, coaxed him out with a piece of meat, and he was soon relaxing in his house.
He was brought to Yorkshire on the recommendation of the European Endangered Species Programme, which coordinates breeding between participating zoos to help protect threatened species. The hope was that he and Tschuna would eventually have cubs.
‘Calm and receptive’
When Altai arrived, the park’s director of animals, Charlotte MacDonald, said: “We are delighted with Altai. He is a beautiful, huge cat and very calm and receptive, his keepers at Dyreparken have clearly done a great job with him.”
She added that it would take him a while to settle in because it was “a big change for him”. She described him as “very curious and interested in what is going on” and said she was sure he would be “a massive hit with our visitors”.
His previous keeper, Even Grønnerø, said: “Altai is a nice and calm tiger. He loves his training, eating and especially enjoys playing in the water outside.”
Those descriptions relate to his behaviour during routine care. They do not show how a tiger will react in every situation, though the reports reviewed contain no confirmed evidence that Altai had attacked anyone before.
His home and his partner
The park’s Land of the Tiger is a two-acre complex of woodland, grassland and reserves, with its own waterfall pool. The source notes that water play is Altai’s favourite activity.
Tschuna arrived at the park in 2013 and gave birth to three cubs two years later. All three have moved to other parks around the world as part of the breeding programme. One has joined the American programme and is already a father at Cleveland Zoo in Ohio.
About Amur tigers
Amur tigers, also known as Siberian tigers, are the largest big cats in the world. Males weigh 160-190kg on average, and females are smaller at 110-130kg. The world has lost three tiger subspecies in the last 100 years, and Amur tiger numbers fell to around 50 individuals several decades ago. International awareness and conservation work have helped them recover. The most recent IUCN Red List assessment, published in 2022, estimated the population at 265-486, and they remain endangered.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park works with the Wildlife Foundation, the charity based at the park. The foundation has supported a wild cats conservation alliance and funded a rescue and rehabilitation centre at Alekseevka in Russia, which works to rehabilitate Amur tigers and return them to the wild. The park had hoped Altai would become an ambassador for the species and that visitors would help fund future wild tiger conservation.
