apparently they were trying to distract the tiger by throwing rocks, and the tiger went from playful and at times ignoring the guy to becoming violent by said rock throwing
Nothing happens in any kind of timely manner, and the more important something is, the less timely the manner.
If that tiger was still pawing at the poor guy 36 hours later, they would have found a man who supposedly worked at the zoo and who was willing to start thinking of a course of action.