Solnhofen Park: Blood Waters

(for context see the Solnhofen Park document)

It all happened at 11:50, Central European time, 12/06/2010.

It was a feeding event. At Solnhofen Park, several species of pterosaurs and marine reptiles are fed on a live event as a display for the guests. A zookeeper goes to a lifting platform that descends into the water like a shark watching cage, up to waist high in water, and releases several kilos worth of a mixture of chum and sardines. Pterosaurs fly overhead and interact readily with the zookeeper, while the larger marine reptiles are generally kept aside through a set of steel bars.

This isn’t always safe, however, as some, particularly the thalattosuchians Geosaurus giganteus and Dakosaurus maximus, have a habit of biting the bars to try to get at the zookeeper, and sometimes a miscalculated proximity to the bars can result in injuries. Prior to that event a bold Dakosaurus had ripped off the arm of zookeeper Georgina Beige, and a Geosaurus had thrust its tail into zookeper Mario Vega, resulting in several broken bones.

They were lucky by comparison, however.

Yvonne Plaga was a 23 year old Romanian/German woman attending the Ansbach University of Applied Sciences. She landed a job as a zookeeper at Solnhofen Park and for the most part did maintenance work on the islands. She proved to be quite competent at dealing with animals, however, and as such in that fateful day she was chosen to host the feeding event.

Yvonne was by all accounts a smart person, and kept her distance from the bars for the first five minutes. However, a passing Rhamphorhynchus muensteri dropped a sardine in ther face. This resulted in two things:

• A disoriented tilt by 34º
• A male Geosaurus named Empanada putting its head above the bars, lowering the platform in his direction

What followed was an instantaneous bite to Yvonne abdomen.

And then Empanada pulling away, tossing her body to the bars.

The single strike both knocked out the woman and caused severe trauma, awashing the waters in blood and agitating not only the terrified guests but also the marine reptiles.

Another Geosaurus, Sully, bit Yvonne’s arm and ripped it off in a death roll. By then other zookeepers poked the animals away with steel pipes and retrieved Yvonne, but the damage was done.

They couldn’t get her to a hospital in time, and so sadly she passed away. Her family was paid handsomely by OrangePromenade, whose funds seem endless, but the tragedy tainted the park’s reputation.

Still, no action was taken until 2013, when another Geosaurus incident left another zookeeper paralised from the waist down due to another tail strike. From then on, zookeepers feed the animals above water and with a minimum of three meters above the water line, in case excited marine reptiles get frisky.