Dutch Safari Park Confirms Keeper's Death After Leopard Attack

A longtime animal keeper has died following a leopard attack at Beekse Bergen Safari Park in Hilvarenbeek, the southern Netherlands, after suffering severe head and neck injuries on Saturday. The park confirmed her death on Tuesday after emergency surgery, and an independent investigation will examine how the incident happened.

The woman had worked at the safari park since she was 17, spending nearly 40 years there with several short interruptions, according to the park's statement. Reports from local media described her as an experienced caretaker who had worked with the park's predator section for eight years.

The attack occurred inside an enclosure housing two Persian leopards that had been moved indoors because of bad weather. Staff are normally kept separated from the animals, and the enclosure has no surveillance cameras, leaving investigators without video footage of the incident.

According to reporting by NL Times, the keeper managed to alert colleagues using her walkie-talkie. Emergency personnel transported her to hospital by trauma helicopter, and doctors operated on her injuries before the park announced that she had died.

The park said the keeper began her career there at 17 and remained part of its workforce for almost four decades. Her death has affected colleagues and the wider park community, while management has asked for privacy for those grieving.

"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. 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," the park said in a statement published on social media.

The park has announced plans to establish a memorial area where visitors and employees can leave messages of condolence. It has also confirmed that an independent investigation will examine the circumstances surrounding the attack.

Park representatives have said the leopards will not be euthanized. A spokesperson told Dutch regional broadcaster Omroep Brabant that the animals had displayed natural behavior, emphasizing the risks associated with working around large predators.

"They are, and remain, predators," the spokesperson told Omroep Brabant.

Martin van Hees, the park's head of animal care, also defended the decision not to take action against the leopard. He said the animal had acted according to its nature and would not be put down following the incident.

"We are not going to do anything with the leopard. It just sat in its enclosure and did what it did. The animal cannot help it," van Hees said.

Van Hees explained that the park's enclosures are generally designed to separate people from animals. The incident is now being investigated to determine why that separation failed and how the keeper came into contact with the leopards.

"In principle, the enclosures are separated for humans and animals. In this case, however, something went differently than it should have. She entered the enclosure while the leopards could also get there, and as a result, she was caught. Her immediate colleague heard the cry for help and rushed to her," van Hees said.

Another park spokesperson told local media that the exact sequence of events remains unclear because there are no cameras inside the enclosure. The investigation is expected to establish how the keeper and the animals ended up in the same space.

"Something went wrong there, but we don't know what yet. There are no cameras in the enclosure and she was working alone," the spokesperson said.

Wineke Schoo, director of the Dutch Association of Zoos, described the attack as a worst-case scenario in comments to Omroep Brabant. She said she had encountered only one comparable incident during 25 years in Dutch zoo management, involving a lion attack in 2001.

The fatal incident adds to a history of deadly encounters between big cats and animal caretakers at wildlife facilities. In 2025, a keeper died in a lion attack at a safari park in Thailand after leaving a vehicle. In October 2024, lions killed a keeper in Crimea after an enclosure door was left unlocked.

Earlier incidents include the death of a 55-year-old keeper attacked by a Siberian tiger at Zurich Zoo in 2020 and a fatal attack by a Malayan tiger at Palm Beach Zoo in Florida in April 2016. Investigators at Beekse Bergen have not yet established the precise circumstances of the latest attack.