3 wolves attack 37-year-old woman staying in zoo’s safari lodge | Trends

A 37-year-old woman was attacked and seriously injured by three wolves in a zoo outside Paris on Sunday. Police and prosecutors are currently investigating how the incident occurred. The woman was bitten “on the neck, calf and back” in the zoo in Thoiry, around 40 kilometers west of the French capital, according to a source familiar with the case.

Maryvonne Caillibotte, chief prosecutor in Versailles, had said the woman’s life was in danger, but later on Sunday a source told AFP that her injuries were no longer life-threatening.

The woman went jogging early Sunday morning after spending the night with her family at the zoo’s safari lodge, according to preliminary investigation results. (Read also: Safari horror in Zambia: Elephant drags tourist out of vehicle and tramples her to death)

Christelle Bercheny, CEO of Wow Safari Thiory, told AFP that the woman had “crossed the American reservation on foot”, a place that is normally “only accessible by car”.

Bercheny said there were signs reminding people of the “survival rules” to follow in the park. “The behavior of the animals in the reserves is that of animals in freedom or semi-freedom,” she added, referring to their reaction to the intrusion of a human.

The woman “ended up in the safari zone, where cars are not allowed. There she was attacked by three wolves,” said Caillibotte.

It is not clear “whether she made a mistake or the path was not clearly marked,” she added.

Rescue workers arrived on site “very quickly” and the wolves were “driven away and then returned to their territory,” Caillibotte said.

The source familiar with the case had previously stated that the woman must have gotten through “security systems, a ditch and an electric fence designed to keep the animals away.”

The lodges in the wolf zone, which are offered on the zoo’s website at prices between 220 and 760 euros per night, promise “peace, relaxation and switching off,” says the zoo’s advertising.

They offer “a unique, very intimate experience with the Arctic wolves, which you can see from your living room”.

Thoiry Zoo was founded in 1968 by Paul de la Panouse, the owner of a neighboring castle that had been in the family since the 16th century. In April, he told the regional newspaper L’Independant how he first supplied the zoo with 120 animals by ship from Kenya. De la Panouse sold the zoo to a group of investors in 2018.