Okay, in my library I found in Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia Volume 12, Page 349 (copyright 1972) that tigers have been found to jump down up to 10 meters (32.8 feet) with the average of 5-6 meter jumps (16-19.7 feet).
In Walker’s Mammals of the World, Fifth Edition, the citation in Volume II on page 1209 says, “It (tiger species) has been reported to cover up to 10 meters in a horizontal leap.”
Based on these citations, it would have been completely feasible for Tatiana, the San Francisco Zoo’s Siberian tiger to have jumped out of her enclosure.
Lucky Leap Theory More Plausible
I thought this video might be of interest to you:
So, just to be accurate, I searched in my library until I found in Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia Volume 12, Page 349 (copyright 1972) that tigers have been found to jump down up to 10 meters (32.8 feet) with the average of 5-6 meter jumps (16-19.7 feet).
In Walker’s Mammals of the World, Fifth Edition, the citation in Volume II, page 1209 says, “It (tiger species) has been reported to cover up to 10 meters (32.8 feet) in a horizontal leap.”
Based on these citations, I believe it would have been completely feasible for Tatiana, the San Francisco Zoo’s Siberian tiger to have jumped out of her enclosure.
If you have not yet heard, the actual wall height was only found to be 12 feet–well below the industry recommended standard.