There are no immediate plans to upgrade security at Dublin Zoo following an incident in which a young woman's arm was mauled by a tiger after she scaled two fences and put her hand into the enclosure.
Yesterday director Leo Oosterweghel maintained that safety at the zoo was constantly being assessed. "We are collecting all the information from the incident and reviewing it," he said. "But in all fairness, we really believed that it was safe."
"We're trying to create a zoo that is pleasant for people. You don't want big fences everywhere, you want a pleasant environment."
The woman is in a stable condition in Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown, Dublin after surgery on her arm yesterday.
The incident occurred just before 4pm on Tuesday and involved a woman in her late teens, thought to have been on a day-trip from the North.
She and her boyfriend climbed over a padlocked, timber service gate, 1.8m (6ft) in height, to the right of the Amur Siberian tigers' enclosure.
The couple then walked up a service path that runs around the enclosure. The woman scaled a smaller, timber fence about 1m (3ft 3in) high into a shallow ditch of vegetation, and put her hand through the small-grade mesh of the 4.60m (15ft) high fence separating her from the tigers.
She was approached by one of the two female tigers who badly mauled her arm.
She was able to pull her arm back and she and her boyfriend went back to the locked gate to call for help. Visitors alerted staff and an ambulance was called. The zoo's first aid post, staffed by the St John Ambulance, administered aid within 10 minutes and the woman was taken to hospital.
Both the woman and her companion were carrying a soft-drink bottle containing a mixture of soda and alcohol and are understood to have been under the influence, according to the zoo authorities.
"In my opinion she was lucky that the tiger let go of something that is so different and interesting to her," said Mr Oosterweghel.
A sign close to the enclosure describes the tigers as: "perfectly designed for catching and killing prey".
Business at the zoo has not been affected by the incident and a spokesperson said it had received a number of sympathetic calls from the public.
It is the first time in at least a century that such an incident has taken place at the zoo.