Man-Eating Panther Now Resides in Irkutsk Zoo

The black panther that attacked a child in the Angarsk circus now lives in Irkutsk Zoo. The young leopard underwent a full course of treatment and rehabilitation, and can now be seen in the branch on Fortune Street. How this happened and why the new ward was named Tortik was explained to an IrCity journalist by the director of the zoo gallery, Lyudmila Ivushkina.

“He came to us not yesterday or a week ago, but back at the end of March. This is the same leopard that worked in the circus and exactly a year ago, on 28 October, attacked a boy under mysterious circumstances. After all that uproar and investigations by the police and the Investigative Committee (SK), several animals from that circus ended up in a dire situation,” the interviewee noted.

The black leopard, two pelicans, a crocodile, and pythons spent the entire winter in a trailer in the industrial zone on the territory of Usolye-Sibirskoye (Irkutsk Oblast, Russia). By the end of February, the situation became critical: the electricity and heating were turned off in the premises, and the animals could literally die from the cold.

“Of course, we took them in because we couldn’t abandon them. If with the other pets everything was more or less normal, the leopard was in a difficult psychological state. Firstly, he was not raised as a circus animal should be, and secondly, he experienced deep stress because he spent four months in a closed, cramped box,” added Lyudmila Ivushkina.

The leopard had to be nursed and treated for a long time because stress caused his immune system to start failing. Moreover, a whole pile of documents had to be processed for the new resident. All this took more than six months.

“We slowly, gradually, over so many months, brought him into stable remission. He does not fall into a stupor or uncontrolled aggression, does not attack people. Now the companion, who was originally named Victoria because they bought him as a female, first became Victor, then turned into Torik, and from Torik became Tortik. We wanted him to become kinder, cuter, and more festive than in the circus, so we started calling him that,” the interviewee noted.

Now the leopard Tortik lives in the branch of Irkutsk Zoo on Fortune Street. On his enclosure, a mesh made of painter’s tape is currently attached, which protects the nervous predator from excessive attention from visitors and helps him adapt faster to people.

“So the man-eating panther now lives in our zoo, come and see her,” laughs Lyudmila Ivushkina.

Recall that exactly a year ago, on 28 October 2024, in the mobile circus of Angarsk, a black panther attacked a child. A three-year-old boy sustained serious injuries, and the Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case. In December, the proceedings were terminated because the mother of the injured child filed a petition for reconciliation of the parties.