DVTimes

Florida hunts 'Tarzan's tiger'


Officials hope the tiger will just return home

Officials in Florida are trying to hunt down a big tiger that escaped from a home owned by a one-time Tarzan actor.
Six-year-old Bobo was reported missing on Monday after getting out of the compound of actor Steve Sipek near the town of Loxahatchee, north of Miami.

The 270-kg (600-pound) Bengal-Siberian mix has been spotted several times since, but managed to evade wildlife officials armed with tranquilizer guns.

Nervous residents were also offered an official escort out of the area.


However, the de-clawed tiger was not necessarily a threat to people, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Willie Puz said.

Natural instincts?

"From what I'm told it's the first time it's been away from home so it's checking to see if it's greener on the other side of the fence, I don't know," Mr Puz said.

"But so far it hasn't been aggressive toward anybody. It has been in captivity its entire life so it didn't have a mother to teach it to hunt but it is a wild animal so when do those natural instincts kick in?" the spokesman added.

Officials said they hoped the hungry tiger would eventually go back to his fenced home.

One neighbour even tried to help the search party by showing up with a live and screaming pig to lure Bobo, but was sent back by deputy sheriffs.

Mr Sipek - who played Tarzan in two films in 1969 and 1972 under the screen name Steve Hawkes - has long had a permit to keep exotic pets at his compound.

The actor has another tiger, two lions, a black leopard and a cougar on his property, local newspapers said.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3891239.stm

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