Was San Francisco Tiger Taunted?
COOPER: The mystery surrounding a deadly tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo deepened today, one week after the massive cat escaped from its exhibit and mauled three young men. The two surviving victims have yet to speak publicly about their ordeal. And their silence has only raised more questions about whether they may have actually provoked the attack by taunting the tiger. Tonight, a New York newspaper is reporting new and some provocative claims. Here's CNN's David Mattingly.</s>DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Why did the 350-pound Siberian tiger named Tatiana maul three people, killing one? The answer may lie behind these doors. It is the home of the two survivors, brothers Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal. They were released from the hospital on Saturday, but have yet to talk publicly about what exactly happened at the San Francisco Zoo. But new allegations suggest they have reason to keep quiet. A report in "The New York Post," citing unnamed sources, says slingshots were found on both brothers after the attack, leading to speculation they provoked the tiger. The report also says an empty bottle of vodka was found in their car. Police have said they have no information to indicate the tiger was provoked. While questions stir about their involvement, the brothers have hired legal heavyweight Mark Geragos, with possible plans to sue the zoo for the attack. Meanwhile, the father of the victim, Carlos Sousa Jr., wants to hear from the survivors.</s>CARLOS SOUSA, FATHER OF CARLOS SOUSA: Did you do this? Did you do that? What happened?</s>MATTINGLY: Meanwhile, the San Francisco Zoo prepares to reopen its doors to the public on Thursday, nine days after the vicious attack. The outdoor tiger exhibit, however, will not be open until the zoo completes construction on new enhanced security barriers around the big cat grottoes.</s>COOPER: David, do we know if...</s>MATTINGLY: No security improvements focusing on that wall that the tiger was apparently able to scale as it went on its rampage. That wall, 12-and-a-half-feet tall, is almost four feet shorter than what is nationally recommended -- construction on these safety improvements beginning and possibly ending some time this month -- Anderson.</s>COOPER: Recommended, not mandated by law, though. Do we know if the police have spoken to the brothers, the two that were attacked?</s>MATTINGLY: The police have spoken to the two brothers, but we have not heard from police since last week. And they have not indicated what exactly they have heard from the brothers. They did tell us they had that one footprint that they were able to get that they found on the railing at the tiger pen. They want to know if the shoes of the three men possibly matched that footprint. They weren't able to tell us that was the case last week. And, so far, we have not heard from them. They do say that this is an ongoing investigation. And police were on the premises again today -- again, this zoo opening for business again on Thursday.</s>COOPER: Have -- have police said whether they -- these two young men have been cooperative? I had some read reports that, initially, they weren't talking to police, that they weren't giving their names, the name of the deceased young man. Do we know in general -- have the police said whether they were cooperative or not?</s>MATTINGLY: Well, that was reported in the San Francisco media. But, when police were asked about that, they didn't respond to that question. They have not answered a lot of questions at all about this case. They come out. They give their news conferences, and then they go when they felt like they have talked enough. But, again, this is an ongoing investigation. They do not say that they have any evidence that the tigers were provoked. And we are waiting publicly now to find out what the police will say next.</s>COOPER: All right, David Mattingly, appreciate it. Digging deeper, one of the first experts we turned to after last week's attack was Jack Hanna, director-emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and hosted "Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures." Now earlier today, we spoke again about these new developments in the story.</s>COOPER: Jack, there's a report from an unnamed source from one of today's papers, saying that the young men involved in this attack may have taunted the tiger. They had slingshots on them at the time and a bottle of vodka in their car. The bottom line is we don't know what happened. They're not talking, which is the most important thing for them to do. But what exactly would it take to provoke an animal like this to jump and attack?</s>JACK HANNA, ANIMAL EXPERT: I'm -- I've said, Anderson, all along since you watched my first interview, and I apologized to the world about, if I'm wrong. But since it's the first time, that three boys that really didn't love animals on Christmas day at 5 p.m. when it's getting dark, going to a zoo, No. 1, there's something wrong with that altogether. No. 2, when you go across that fence, you have a fence here. You have a little bit of territory, what I call no-man's territory. Then you have a moat. When somebody crosses into that no-man's territory. What would somebody do if they came into your home or your yard. You would go, gosh, what's that? Now let's just say there was a slingshot or something involved. Can you imagine what that tiger was going through, sitting there getting pounded by two or three guys. I mean, give me a break, you know, the moat worked for 30-something years. I'm not saying that obviously the cat got out. If that's the reason then, you really had to provoke something to do that. Using the word taunting really isn't harsh enough as far as what this cat went through, if that's what happened. And I'll tell you, it's sick.</s>COOPER: It's remarkable that the young man who died, his father has come out and said he wants these two other young men, these alleged friends of his son, to at least call him and let him know what happened. They haven't called him. They haven't called to apologize. They haven't called to check in on him at all. And still to this day, they're not cooperating with -- they haven't been cooperating with police. Or are reluctantly cooperating, to the extent that they have. So the bottom line is, they should be the ones coming forward. And they're the only ones who know for sure what happened.</s>HANNA: I bet you'll find out, if they ever start talking, which I hope they do for that father's sake, as well as those new folks, that the world will then know what happened that night. But I said from the very first moment that this whole thing doesn't sound right to me after 40 years of doing this. And only one death, Anderson, in the last 45 years, we've been keeping record, in the last 40 to 50 years, one death in the zoo, and that's 2.5 billion- plus people in the country going to zoos. I'd take my odds any day of the week with 2.5 billion visitors to a zoo and we have one death. You know, something is wrong here.</s>COOPER: As someone who is affiliated with zoos and has been most of your life, there's clearly a responsibility on the zoo's part to keep visitors safe. It is a hard balance, though, I mean, if someone is taunting the animal.</s>HANNA: Right, Anderson. Obviously, the zoo is responsible. But, again, you know, what are we supposed to do? At NASCAR, if you have a fence and you cross that fence to go inside where the racecar are going at 200 miles an hour, and you get hit, you know, how high are we supposed to make fences? How high are we supposed to make moats? I mean, you know, we can only do so much in the zoological world.</s>COOPER: Do you think this is going to lead to changes in other zoos around the country? I mean, do you think other zoos are now checking their security barriers, checking the -- their enclosures?</s>HANNA: There's no doubt about it there's going to be some other -- there will be some changes made. People know what to do. They have to come to a zoological park and respect the animals. You know, the whole -- one word is respect. When someone comes to your house you respect it. When I go to the wild, like you do, you respect the gorillas and whatever. And I respect. People should respect that this is the animal's home.</s>COOPER: Jack Hanna. Appreciate your comments, Jack. Thanks for being with us.</s>HANNA: Thanks a lot, Anderson.</s>COOPER: A lot more on this story to still be learned. We're going to go up close when we come back. We're looking at what makes animals tick and what makes them attack.</s>COOPER (voice-over): Even in the zoo, they were born to be wild.</s>HANNA: A wild animal is like a loaded gun. It can go off at any time.</s>COOPER: See what happens when animals attack and what sometimes happens instead. Later, the mystery deepening, claims of a cover-up growing. New pictures of a suspect. Who killed Benazir Bhutto and why? The latest on this global mystery when 360 continues.