Search Exotic Incidents Database

Jim, a western lowland gorilla, busted out of his night stall at the Los Angeles Zoo when it was not secured.

Jim, a western lowland gorilla, jumped across the moat and into the waterfall between two gorilla exhibits at the Los Angeles Zoo. Jim apparently went to investigate noises the nearby gorillas were making. Keepers used a water hose to get him back into his enclosure. This is second time Jim escaped.

A Nubian ibex (type of goat) slipped past a keeper and out of the holding area at the Los Angeles Zoo, not once, but twice. On one of those times the ibex spent the night in a service station before she was discovered.

An employee of a store that sold reptiles and snakes was bitten by a western diamondback rattlesnake on 09/26/07. The man was initially treated at Memorial Pembroke Hospital with six vials of antivenin and would likely receive additional treatments to combat the effects of the bite.

A rhesus macque that bit two children on 09/23/07 remained at large while authorities continued to search for the woman with whom the macque had been observed around the area. See followup 11/06/07.

A man was charged and indicted for stealing three endangered iguanas from a nature preserve in Fihi and smuggling them into the U.S. in his prosthetic leg.

Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies arrested a pet shop owner after investigators found numerous dead animals in the store. Detectives found 33 dead animals. The owner told detectives he was just lazy and never went back when he ran into financial difficulty before the grand opening of the pet shop. One hundred sixty reptiles, amphibians, rodents, and invertebrates went without food, water or care for three weeks.

According to a citation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, two tigers named Eragon and Sitara had visible injuries. Eragon had noticeable swelling and was limping on the left front leg, while Sitara had several puncture wounds on one leg and an open would on another leg. Nick Sculac, owner of the zoo, failed to report the injuries or seek veterinary treatment.

State wildlife officials ordered two small alligators destroyed after they were captured near the Graylyn Conference Center. A District wildlife biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission said that he didn’t like seeing the animals destroyed, but officials had to look to the greater good of the state’s wildlife populations.

Little Man, an African serval cat who escaped from his possessor on 08/30/07, was sold according to his possessor because DNR regulations were too stringent for him to meet.