Interview with the Late Guliko Chitadze, Zoo Worker and Animal Lover
“I had a dream that there was a lake of blood in the tiger cage; someone was attacked by them. I saw two men standing over the injured person. A few times youngsters have tried to approach the tigers and got hurt. I was afraid that my dream could mean another mishap with youngsters which is why I went around telling everyone about my dream, including Zura (Gurielidze, zoo director) and insisting that the guards should pay special attention to the tigers. It appeared that I had a dream about my own encounter with death; I just couldn’t recognize myself. It was my destiny,” Guliko recalls, waving the remains of her amputated right arm. She stays positive, however, and is thankful that at least some of her arm was saved. “This way I’ll be able to use the artificial hand better and take care of my little ones.” By little ones, she means the zoo animals.
Guliko Kontselidze-Chitadze is the main caregiver of the zoo. Several days ago she was attacked by tigers. I have known her for a long time and I know how strong-willed she is, but what I heard from her while visiting her at the hospital exceeded all my expectations. She tells everyone who comes to her sad that it’s no use worrying about something that cannot be changed. She says she has to learn to live anew with her left hand. She will not say a bad word about the tigers. She believes that it was just ‘silly ones playing’ with her and that they didn’t understand what they were doing. And this, from a woman who had no flesh on her arm when they took her from the zoo territory.
What happened on that day? I was very interested in the details of the tragedy as once, when tiger Simba scratched me with a claw while playing with him, Guliko argued with me, asking why I had not followed the safety rules that she’d taught me. I was surprised that this extremely careful person had had a mishap whereas I might expect a bigger tragedy from a less attentive and careful person.
Soon white lions raised by her will be taken from the zoo to be settled in the zoos of other countries. On the day of the attack, Guliko had come to her ‘little ones’ to say good-bye, she took photos and was about to return to the room with monkey Marta and fox Troa.
“I heard a child crying. On the upper side of the cage of lions and tigers there stood a girl crying. The accompanying man, her father as I later understood, was comforting her and saying he would buy a new one. It appears that a toy had fallen from the girl’s hands right into the tiger cage. I also tried to console the girl and reassure her that she’d get a new toy, but she just cried even more intensively. The man said she would not stop til she had it back and started to go down the stairs. I recalled my dream and thought the beasts would tear him apart if he went down. I told him it was not allowed for visitors to go there; the guards wouldn’t let him in and it might be fatal to go. I told him I would go myself. Not for a toy, even for gold bars
should I have gone to the cage. But I, who has no child and loves children greatly, could not let the girl cry that long and hard and so I did. Before the tigers came to the lower corner of the cage, I managed to reach through and grab the toy and throw it up to the man and it seems that at that moment I let myself get too close to the cage. The tigers got hold of my dress with their claws. The dress didn’t tear and I fell. One of them held my hand down and another put claws in my leg while the third attempted to drag me into the cage. I was trying to get away with my other hand and crawl away to the wall. The man started shouting and ran down. I asked him not to come in but run to the bear enclosure where he would find Vaniko (Markhvashvili), a veterinarian. When the tigers’ claws raked into my flesh, I felt soul-squeezing pain. Imagine, it is painful when something small cuts your finger and here all my fingers and my entire hand was being torn into by huge claws… I remember how I took my fleshless arm back out of the cage. Vaniko came, tore up his shirt and tied it aroung my arm as there was no time and I was bleeding. I almost lost consciousness with pain but I could still hear everything. I cannot describe how much my hand hurt; the hand with which I had raised the mother of those tigers, Salima. Luckily, she had realized that her children were hurting me, ran to us and started beating her children with her paws, which allowed me to get away; otherwise, they would playfully cut me into pieces and dragged me inside the cage.
Rumours said that the tigers I’d raised did this to me. Don’t believe it. The older white clubs are already big and you should see how they love me; one of them even hugs me and sits quietly like a house cat. I have never been afraid of the ones I raised and I have never though they would ever attack me. Animals feel motherly warmth incredibly well and never forget the care they’ve been given.”
Guliko’s situation is getting better by the day. Although she is well taken care of at the hospital, she cannot wait to return home. And home means the zoo. The loyal defender of animals who does not have her own child, has practically settled in the zoo to raise the animals there. She does not differentiate if an animal is of noble breeding, predator or just a wild animal. Guliko takes care of all of the young ones equally. Before I left, she told me she was missing her little monkeys – Eva and Marta – and her fox Troa. The little ones refused to take food when their favorite care-giver wasn’t there. They only accepted food from Guliko’s husband Malkhaz Chitadze hoping that Guliko would soon follow him.
Two years ago when tigers attacked a boy who jumped into the cage, Guliko worried a lot. She visited the boy at the hospital and tried to comfort him… When she told me the story of the boy miraculously saved from tigers, she did so with tears in her eyes. This is what Guliko is like – with a kind and ready heart. You can hardly find such a person who will support and back you as much as she can.
Rest in Peace, Guliko.
Eka Lomidze/Kviris Palitra