Unfortunately, as is the case too much of the time, it is believed that these boys taunted the tiger. The animal retaliated as animals do and lost his life in the process. Although, I certainly don't mean that the boys "deserved what they got", it is an incident that was totally avoidable. Obviously the area was not restrictive enough to keep the tiger inside. We had a situation here about twenty years ago when a keeper lost his life to one of the tigers in our zoo. However, it came through a glass window in the door to the area where he was fed. That problem was corrected but visitors have never been in danger because the habitat for all cats is incredibly well set up to protect the public, as well as the animals while allowing the animals a free roaming area in a somewhat "natural" habitat.