A former keeper at Whangarei's Zion wildlife park has told a Whangarei inquest into a fatal mauling by a tiger that conflict at the park was stressing the big cats.
Martin Ferreira has given evidence about the events leading up to the death of the head keeper, Clifford Dalu MnCube, who was killed in May 2009.
Mr Ferreira told of punching and hitting the tiger, Abu, with his bare hands and hitting it with a stick in a frantic but futile attempt to make it release Mr MnCube.
Another worker attacked the big cat with a fire extinguisher but it continued attacking Mr Mncube, inflicting fatal injuries.
Mr Ferreira says Zion was an unhappy place, because of the conflict between park founder Craig Busch - known as the "Lion Man" - and his mother Patricia Busch, and the animals sometimes seemed stressed out and upset.
He says the pair gave staff conflicting orders and Mr Busch twice threatened Mr Mncube with deportation back to Africa because of what he alleged were false passport details.
In his view, Mr MnCube seemed troubled by the threat, and the big cats were quick to pick up on mood or distraction in humans around them.
Mr Ferreira said a month before Mr MnCube was killed, the same tiger had bitten another keeper and the staff had asked Mrs Busch for tasers for protection.
She provided them with cattle prods but Mr Ferreira said it did not work when staff tried to use it to stop Abu mauling Mr MnCube.
