A 19-year-old with a history of mental health issues was mauled to death by a lioness when he climbed into the lion enclosure at a Brazilian zoo. Video / @cpreparado
A Brazilian teenager was mauled by a lioness in full view of zoo visitors, after scaling a 6m wall and safety fencing and shimmying down a tree into the enclosure, authorities said.
The municipal government of the coastal city of Joao Pessoa said a young man – identified byBrazilian media as Gerson de Melo Machado, 19 – had “deliberately invaded the lioness’ enclosure” at the Arruda Camara Zoobotanical Park on Sunday (local time).
“In a rapid and surprising manner, he climbed a wall over six metres high, scaled the security bars, accessed one of the trees, and entered the enclosure,” the government said in a statement.
Viral videos of the attack showed the lioness, Leona, lying next to the glass separating her from visitors, who gasp in shock as the teen shimmies down a tree.
The lioness spots him and makes a beeline for the tree, pulling Machado down to the ground. Bushes are seen shaking, and the teen stands up one more time before disappearing from view.
“It got him. It got him,” visitors can be heard saying, with exclamations of “my God!”.
Authorities said Gerson de Melo Machado “deliberately invaded the lioness’ enclosure”. Photo / 123rf
The government statement said Machado “died from injuries caused by the animal”.
On Monday state environmental authorities carried out an on-site inspection at the zoo, which remains closed, according to the municipality and the park.
Park vet Thiago Nery defended the safety standards of the enclosure and said the incident was “completely unpredictable”.
The park said that “euthanasia was never considered” for Leona, who “shows no aggressive behaviour outside the context of the incident”.
‘Tragedy waiting to happen’
The government statement said Machado’s actions may have been a “possible suicide attempt”.
Child protection counsellor Veronica Oliveira said in a video on Instagram that she had accompanied Machado for eight years as he “went through all the institutional care in this city”.
Gerson de Melo Machado, 19, was mauled by a lioness after entering her enclosure at Joao Pessoa zoo. Video screenshot / @cpreparado
She said his mother and grandparents suffered from schizophrenia, but Machado never got the care he needed from the state.
In other media interviews, Oliveira said Machado had dreamed of being a lion tamer and had once cut through an airport fence and hid in the landing gear of a plane he thought was going to Africa.
Machado’s cousin Icara Menezes told journalists on Monday that in the week before the accident “he said he needed to save money, that he wanted to go to Africa”.
“He practically spent half his life in prison,” she said.
“He was never a bad boy, he was just a boy who needed support and never had it.”
Edmilson Alves, director of a prison unit in Joao Pessoa, said in an Instagram video that Machado had been held 16 times in juvenile and adult detention centres and was “a person who needed help” but “nobody in the family wanted him”.
Appearing in the video, the prison’s disciplinary chief, Ivison Lira de Paiva said Machado had the intellect of a 5-year-old, and his case was a “tragedy waiting to happen”.
