Dreamworld’s Tiger Island, opened almost 30 years ago as one of only two interactive tiger exhibits in the world, is home to Sumatran and Bengal tigers. It hosts twice daily tiger presentations at which guests are invited to be “mesmerised” by the tigers “as [they] glide underwater” and “be amazed by their might and raw power during feeding time”.
The Courier Mail reported in 2022 that one of Tiger Island’s most senior handlers was injured in an incident.
Visitors to Australia Zoo, on the Sunshine Coast, have also witnessed tiger handler maulings. In 2013, a handler sustained a crushed carotid artery, nicked jugular, paralysis to the left larynx and nerve damage to the left eye after being bitten in the neck after a tiger got “over excited”. In 2016 another handler sustained injuries to his wrist and forehead after an incident with a tiger that was “hot and bothered”.