Reconstruction of the final minutes begins with the timeline established at the inquest opening. At approximately 13.31 on 10 October 2026 William Chapman, visiting Yorkshire Wildlife Park alone, climbed two fences and entered the tiger enclosure within the Land of the Tigers area. Coroner’s officer Caitlin Brookes told Doncaster Coroner’s Court that he was approached by the tiger and that the ensuing physical contact produced multiple traumatic injuries which rapidly led to his death. Park staff secured the animal; paramedics attended and pronounced life extinct at the scene. The park was evacuated.

Mobile-phone footage believed to have been recorded by Chapman himself shows him moving across a patch of grᴀss inside the enclosure toward the tiger, which was resting on a wooden platform; distant voices of visitors can be heard reacting. Separate eyewitness accounts describe him pacing while wearing headphones immediately beforehand. A provisional post-mortem conducted by Dr Laszlo Karsai gave the cause as 1A multiple traumatic injuries and 1B animal interaction; samples were taken for toxicology and a fuller report on the precise extent of the injuries is still awaited. Senior Coroner Nicola Mundy directed the park to preserve all relevant CCTV and to notify her office of any previous visits by Chapman.

The full inquest is scheduled for 18 March 2027. Altai, the approximately 200 kg male Amur tiger, sustained no injuries and has remained in the care of the park; officials have repeatedly confirmed he is safe and well and will not be euthanised. When the park reopened on 16 October, early visitors observed Altai in an adjacent paddock eating on a wooden platform while the female Tschuna occupied the larger enclosure that contains the waterfall—the same space Chapman had entered. Raised walkways allow public viewing from roughly four metres above ground level.

Staff have been offered specialist trauma support. City of Doncaster Council’s health-and-safety investigation, together with the police inquiry and the forthcoming inquest, continues to examine how the barriers were negotiated and what occurred in the brief interval between entry and the fatal contact. The coroner has emphasised that the proceedings will address the broad circumstances of the death; the family have asked that the process be allowed to establish those circumstances without further circulation of distressing imagery.