On March 7th, 2009, in a feat of thinking worthy of a Darwin Award, a man was killed attempting to take a shortcut through Badaling Safari World tiger enclosure. The young Guo and his two older companions were walking down from a section of the Great Wall when they came across a series of fences. Guo and his two companions climbed two 3.6m chain link fences and hopped a meter high electric fence to take a shortcut down the mountain, all while reading signs about dangerous animals and rationalizing their plan with an out of sight, out of mind policy.

Before a hundred meters in, a tiger came into sight and very much into mind. They dropped their packs and began running, but only made it six or seven steps before the tiger overtook them and pounced on Guo’s throat. While Guo’s friends ran back to the fence to escape the tiger, a Badaling employee spotted the scene from a car and drove near to scare the tiger off. However, by this time Guo had already died due to severe neck wounds.

This incident is a repeat of one five years prior. On November 11th, 2003, three migrant workers made it through the fences while trying to find a shortcut to a construction site. A nearby tiger quickly and thoroughly killed the first man in.

The manager of the park, Liu Xing, said that it is easy to make it over the walls since the system of walls is made as an animal barrier. Despite this ease, he reasonably maintains the blame lays with Guo and his companions for ignoring the warning signs.

Links and Sources: 1DS.com - Badaling Safari Park (Photo).

18岁小伙被猛虎一口断喉 (Sina.com Chinese article)

18-year-old man bitten to death by zoo tiger in Beijing (Sina.com English version)