Filmed while being mauled by tigers, the zoo does not kill them

In short
On 13 November 2008 Nordin Montong, a 32-year-old cleaner at Singapore Zoo, deliberately entered the white tiger enclosure and was killed in front of visitors, one of whom filmed it. In 2009 his death was ruled a suicide. The tigers were not put down and the zoo tightened its safety measures.

The death of a man mauled by tigers at Singapore Zoo was filmed by a boy who was there with a group of friends. The man was Nordin Montong, a 32-year-old cleaner.

The visit to the zoo

On 13 November 2008, around midday, Nizam, a 16-year-old, and a group of friends were visiting Singapore Zoo. They were near the white tiger enclosure, and a member of staff was explaining how far a tiger can jump.

Nordin was a Malaysian contract worker from Sarawak who had arrived in Singapore a few months earlier. He worked as a cleaner and was not supposed to go near the tigers. Shortly before, according to newspapers, he had been behaving strangely, shouting and throwing things.

During the explanation the boys heard a “splash”, turned round and saw a man in the water-filled moat inside the enclosure: he had climbed over a low wall and jumped down about four metres. He was holding a broom and a yellow bucket and shouting at the tigers. He climbed out of the water and one of the animals approached him.

Nizam thought it was a show for visitors: in fact, at first, the tiger approached the man but did not attack him.

The attack

Suddenly the animal swiped at the man and he fell to his knees, then a second tiger came closer. They stayed there sniffing him curiously, while visitors realised something was wrong and shouted at the man, who kept yelling, to jump into the water.

For a moment he seemed about to do it, but the tiger, perhaps alarmed by the sudden movement, grabbed him by the neck. The man tried to protect himself with the bucket, putting it over his head, and people kept shouting at him to get back in the water.

Onlookers also tried to distract the tigers by shouting and throwing things, and for a moment the strategy seemed to work, but the man could not get free. Suddenly one of the tigers bit him on the neck and dragged him to an inner part of the enclosure.

Mauled by tigers

The attack lasted a few minutes. More than a dozen keepers rushed over and managed to distract the tigers with long poles and drive them back into their den, but it was too late for Nordin. Nizam said he did not see any staff member with a rifle. About 90 wounds were found on Nordin’s body, along with fractures to his skull and ribs.

His family said that the day before he had called them to ask how his parents were. In 2009 the coroner ruled his death a suicide, and police cleared the zoo of any responsibility.

After the incident the zoo improved safety at the enclosures of the most dangerous animals, with new signs, emergency buttons and more keeper patrols.

The three white tigers, Omar, Jippie and Winnie, were not put down, because they had acted on instinct. They remained among the zoo’s best-loved attractions for years: Omar died in 2017, aged almost 18.

The video of the incident still circulates online, but out of respect for Nordin I am not including it here.

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