The zookeeper who was attacked and critically injured by a jaguar at the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo in Thurmont this weekend was identified Tuesday as Deborah Gregory, of Severn, according to Maryland state police.
Gregory, 32, remained in critical, but stable, condition Tuesday at University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore after she was attacked about 11 a.m. Sunday while working in the interior den area of the jaguar enclosure at the Frederick County zoo, about an hour outside Baltimore.
When Gregory called for help, staff members moved the animals from the interior den to the exterior exhibit area, so Gregory could receive first aid by staff members and emergency medical technicians before being taken to Shock Trauma.
Zoo officials said Gregory suffered several bite wounds to her upper body from a 13-year-old black jaguar named Diego, a male weighing between 180 and 200 pounds.
Animal control workers did not know for sure if a second jaguar, a female, entered the indoor area or participated in the attack.
The two jaguars, which were properly vaccinated, were placed in quarantine Monday, while zoo officials continued investigating the attack.
Frederick County Animal Control Director Harold Domer said he surveyed the jaguar enclosure Monday and found the safety precautions were “extremely adequate.”
“For whatever reasons, the jaguar was able to get from the outside exhibit into the inside enclosure,” he said. “But at no point, did either of the jaguars escape from the outdoor enclosure into the zoo, so, there was never any risk to anyone else.”
Gregory was a relatively new animal caretaker who’d been working at the privately owned zoo for about a month as a big-cat keeper, officials said.
The incident was the zoo’s first serious attack since it opened in 1993.
The zoo is closed to the public for the season.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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