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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— A hyena bit off the finger of a zookeeper at the Albuquerque Biopark in a November incident after the worker violated zoo protocol, an internal investigation found.
The surveillance video of the Nov. 7 incident was obtained by the 4 Investigates team. The video shows the worker enters the hyena enclosure and repeatedly poke her fingers through the chain-link fence, appearing to pet the animals.
The surveillance video shows the situation escalates almost instantly as the hyena bites down on the zookeeper’s hand and refuses to let go.
Security records obtained by the 4 Investigates team reveal the zookeeper lost her left middle finger in the incident. One security officer wrote that the “finger was eaten.”