Zookeeper dies after being attacked by leopard, safari park says

A keeper at a Dutch zoo has died days after being mauled in a leopard enclosure, the safari park announced on Tuesday.

The woman was attacked while caring for two Persian leopards in an indoor facility at the Beekse Bergen park in the south of the Netherlands.

It is not clear exactly what happened in the enclosure as there are no cameras. The animals were inside due to bad weather and staff are usually kept away from the leopards.

She sustained serious injuries to her head and neck, according to local media. She underwent emergency surgery but died on Tuesday, the zoo said in a statement.

"The keeper started at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park at the age of 17 and worked here, with only a few short interruptions, for nearly 40 years," the park said in a statement on social media. "Her passing also deeply affects us all, and we are intensely grieving with her family, friends, and loved ones. We ask for peace and privacy for her loved ones and our staff, so that they can process this profound loss."

An independent investigation will be launched to establish the circumstances of the incident, the zoo added.

The leopards were behaving naturally, a park spokesperson told Omroep Brabant, a local media outlet.

"They are, and remain, predators," Brabant said.

According to the zoo, the leopard is "a solitary predatory cat found in Africa and Asia" and primarily hunts animals such as deer, monkeys and antelope at night.

Big cats have killed caretakers at other parks around the world in recent years.

Last year, a zookeeper was killed in a lion attack after he stepped out his vehicle at a safari park in Thailand.

In October 2024, a group of lions mauled a zookeeper to death in Crimea after a door inside their enclosure was left unlocked.

In 2020, a 55-year-old keeper at Zurich's zoo was killed by one of the park's Siberian tigers.

In 2018, a lion escaped its enclosure and killed a recent college graduate at a North Carolina conservatory during a routine cleaning. 

A Malayan tiger killed a zookeeper at Florida's Palm Beach Zoo in April 2016 after a door that was supposed to be locked was left open and she was attacked.