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A ZOOKEEPER was mauled to death by a rare white Bengal tigress after he made a crucial “mistake” while feeding the beast.
Alexey Melnikov was working at Mariupol Zoo in Russian-occupied Ukraine when the big cat “attacked him and gnawed his head”.
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It is understood he mistakenly hadn’t moved her, and she was lurking in a wooden den when he went into her cage.
He was then attacked by the tigress, which pounced on him and mauled him to death.
The zoo said the big cat - named Lucy - was likely “defending her four cubs”.
Zoo director Savely Vashura said: “The white tigress has four cubs.
“She came out from behind, and bam – the man was gone.
“Maybe he got distracted, maybe something else happened – he was only human.”
Shocking images The Sun has chosen not to publish, show blood all over the tiger's cage as well as the keeper's bloodstained clothes.
The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe into the tragedy.
A spokesman said: “A white tiger attacked an employee of the Mariupol Zoo.
“According to preliminary data, the animal attacked the employee when he entered the enclosure to feed it.
“The man died from the injuries he received.”
The dead man was earlier shown on Russian TV saying he had come to work in Mariupol from Crimea.
He said: “I used to work at Yalta Zoo. I love animals very much – I can’t live without them.
“ I clean, feed the predators. Mostly I work with predators.
“I move them [from one cage to another], keeping things in order.”
It comes as last year a zookeeper chillingly filmed his last moments before being mauled to death by a group of lions.
The keeper, named locally as F. Iriskulov, 44, recorded himself entering the cage to “impress his girlfriend” at Lion Park, Uzbekistan.
Another zookeeper was killed by a tiger in a horror attack after the staff member entered the cage and was bitten on the head.
The 52-year-old, from Pitesti Zoo, 60 miles of Bucharest, Romania, was killed in a couple of agonising minutes in the savage mauling.
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