Cheetah attacks Columbus Zoo keeper
Zoo officials are still investigating the cause of the attack, but they believe it was the scent of other animals on the keeper.
Zoo officials are still investigating the cause of the attack, but believe it was the scent of the other animals on the keeper that triggered Isabelle’s natural instinct to attack.
A zookeeper injured when attacked by a cheetah Thursday morning at the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium has been evaluated at a hospital and released.
Zoo officials said they would not reveal the keeper’s identity or the extent of that person’s injuries, citing privacy of individual health information under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Zoo team members called the Liberty Township Fire Department, whose medics responded and provided treatment to the keeper on site. The keeper was then transported to a local hospital for further evaluation “out of precaution,” zoo officials said in a prepared news release.
The keeper was evaluated and has since been released, according to the zoo.
The incident occurred around 9:55 a.m. in a non-public area while two animal program staff members were walking 4-yearold cheetah Isabelle for her daily exercise. Isabelle was harnessed as the staff members led her from the program’s cheetah facility in the Heart of Africa exhibit to the behind-the-scenes yard across the zoo’s Jerry Borin Trace service.
A keeper from the Heart of Africa region approached and, as Isabelle calmly sat purring, her handlers invited the keeper to come closer, according to the zoo. That’s when Isabelle crouched down and lunged toward the keeper, who works around giraffes and other hoofstock.
Zoo officials are still investigating the cause of the attack, but believe it was the scent of the other animals on the keeper that triggered Isabelle’s natural instinct to attack.
“Right now we’re just trying to iron out exactly what happened,” said Suzi Rapp, the zoo’s vice president of animal programs. “I can tell you the person is OK.”
Rapp did not set a timetable for the completion of the zoo’s investigation into the incident, which is Isabelle’s first documented attack.
Rapp described Isabelle as “an incredibly welltrained animal” who has been trained to cooperate with ultrasounds, X-rays, blood draws and other medical procedures in order to minimize the use of anesthesia.
Under the rules of the Delaware County General
Health District, the cheetah — who is up to date on her vaccinations — will be placed in a 30-day quarantine to ensure that she does not show signs of illness. At the end of 30 days, she will return to her home in the Heart of Africa.
Isabelle, or “Izzy,” has the distinction of being the surrogate mother to the world’s first cheetah cubs — a male and a female — born using in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer in February 2020.
“Izzy, through leaps and bounds through the cheetah world, is a very famous cheetah,” Rapp said.
Isabelle came to the zoo in February 2017 with her sisters Ophelia and Luciana. Ophelia was euthanized in December after lacerating her Achilles tendon, a serious injury for the species.
In the news release, zoo officials noted that Isabelle is not part of the zoo’s Animal Ambassador Outreach program where animals are used in presentations to the public.