Catalina Ibarra, an ecotourism graduate, was murdered by a big cat on Friday at Safari Rancagua in the central Chilean city of the same name.
Catalina, 21, was working at the safari park at the time of the incident and had been assigned to cleaning tasks.
According to reports, the tiger leaped on the woman, bit down on her neck, and she died instantaneously.
Her coworker Leonardo Maluenda claims she was not informed that the tiger's cage door was open.
“The most natural thing is that they advise you to be careful if you go to clean up there because the tiger is loose,” Leonardo told reporters, “but they did not warn her.”
Following that, administration and finance manager Antonio Rojas said that a group of workers had purposefully unlocked the tigers' cage in violation of protocol.
The personnel in question claim that the cage was already open when they arrived and that they did not open it.
Catalina was in charge of cleaning and maintenance at the safari park, where she had worked for more than two years, and she also offered family excursions on occasion.
According to the facility, none of her responsibilities required her to have direct contact with any of the animals, which is currently being reviewed for probable carelessness.
The tiger that murdered Catalina had not been euthanized at the time of reporting, and its fate was unknown.