Search Exotic Incidents Database

A “pet” 4-year-old African serval escaped and was on the loose. Native to Africa, servals can grow to be 24 inches tall and weigh more than 20 lbs.

Visitors to the Toronto Zoo found themselves face to face with a 330-pound Siberian tiger when gates were left open and the female tiger escaped. The tiger roamed between the high fence of enclosure and the lower fence meant to keep visitors at distance. Zoo workers coaxed her back into the enclosure while others stood by with tranquilizer guns.

A pigtailed macaque monkey bit a 49-year-old man on his left thumb.

Samson, a leopard or jaguar at Charlotte Metro Zoo, while being used in a television commercial for the Carolina Panthers, bit the zoo’s owner. In a separate incident, a cobra used for a Carolina Cobras football team commercial got loose during filming.

A 10-year-old boy was mauled to death by his aunt’s “pet” tiger. The tiger pulled the boy under a fence and into his cage. The tiger was shot and killed. The boy died before he reached the hospital.

Two 6-year-old Asiatic bears escaped from a pen at the Natural Bridge Zoo when a worker neglected to lock the gate properly. The male bear, Festus, broke into a neighboring house and was shot by the zoo’s owner and a sheriff’s deputy several times at close range. The female, Maggie, was found under a porch outside, where she swiped at the homeowner. She was shot by the zoo’s owner and disappeared into the woods, only to be shot and killed two days later by a hunter. USDA authorities investigated the zoo.

A woman jumped the fence at the Brookfield Zoo to reach into the gray wolf’s cage. The 11-year-old, 100-pound wolf was subsequently shot in the chest by a zoo police officer when the wolf refused to let go of the woman’s arm as she tried to pet him. The woman was treated at a nearby emergency room for bite wounds to her forearm.

Sabi, a 2-year-old, 90-pound female cheetah at Living Desert Zoo & Gardens, was on her daily walk through the park when she pounced and bit a 58-year-old woman who was holding her 2-year-old granddaughter on her lap. The woman was treated for bite wounds to her thigh and calf, the baby was checked for possible concussion. An animal trainer walking Sabi on a leash yanked her back and was bitten and scratched. Sabi was kept in isolation for 10 days after the incident.

A “pet” alligator escaped from a burlap sack and crate while en route from Miami to Newark.

Two men were hospitalized after being bitten by one of two rattlesnakes that were being illegally kept at their home.