Search Exotic Incidents Database

A 20-year-old female elephant at the Miami Metrozoo knocked down a 31-year-old zookeeper and kicked him into a pile of rocks. Knocked unconscious, the zookeeper suffered a laceration to his head and injury to his back, and was listed in critical condition at the hospital. A crowd of visitors who witnessed the attack included children.

A 15-inch-long alligator was reported missing from a local pet store.

A baby red-flanked duiker (African antelope) jumped its 4-foot nursery fence after being startled by a musical group at the Los Angeles Zoo. The animal was recaptured two days later on a nearby golf course.

A 6-year-old monkey escaped from his possessor and was loose in the neighborhood. He was recaptured later.

A 3-ft-long iguana was found in an abandoned home. The animal was suffering from a metabolic bone disease and needed surgery.

Daisy, a 10-year-old, 15-foot, 105-pound Burmese python, freed herself from her cage at the Seneca Park Zoo during a Girl Scout sleepover in the zoo’s Discovery Center and slithered around the area.

An 8-year-old cheetah named Bikita was euthanized due to chronic kidney failure.

Three “pet” emus escaped from their home. One was recaptured but the other two were still on the loose.

Phoenix, a 23-year-old bobcat, was euthanized due to kidney problems. The pathology report after her death concluded that the kidneys were not at “end stage” but that she could not walk because her claws had grown into her paw pads.

An 18-year-old female African elephant knocked her handler to the ground with her head and crushed him to death. The incident occurred at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium during a routine morning walk of the elephant and her 3-year-old baby on the zoo’s African Savannah trail before the zoo opened.