Montecore (tiger)

Montecore is a male white tiger which was in Siegfried & Roy's white tiger troupe, used in illusion and magic acts.

On October 3, 2003, the tiger made headlines when owner Roy Horn was bitten on the neck by Montecore.

It is disputed whether or not the tiger attacked Horn. Montecore had been trained by Horn since he was a cub; he had performed with the act for six years. Siegfried Fischbacher, appearing on the Larry King interview program, said Horn fell during the act and Montecore was attempting to drag him to safety, as a mother tigress would pull one of her cubs by the neck. Fischbacher said Montecore had no way of knowing that Horn, unlike a tiger cub, did not have fur and thick skin covering his neck and that his neck was vulnerable to injury. Fischbacher said if Montecore had wanted to kill Horn, the tiger would have snapped his neck and shaken him back and forth.[1]

However, captive tigers are known to be dangerous even when suposedly tame, since these animals usually retain their predatory instincts. Many tamers and tiger owners have been killed by animals that were raised from cubhood by them.

Montecore is one of the sons of Shiba, a white, almost stripeless tigress that resides in the Guadalajara Zoo, in Jalisco, Mexico. This tigress is one of the greatest stars in the zoo.

References

• "Siegfried: Tiger wanted to help Roy" by Jeff Flock, CNN, October 9, 2003