Search Exotic Incidents Database

A tiger being walked on a leash by his trainer at a Phoenix resort attacked a woman visitor, inflicting severe puncture wounds to her leg.

An elephant with the Great American Circus went on a rampage, injuring her trainer and a spectator. According to spectators, just prior to the rampage, the trainer had stuck a hook in her mouth for refusal to cooperate. One spectator told police he saw the trainer hitting the elephant on the side of the head with a 2-foot metal pole after the incident.

Cheyenne, an orangutan at the Kansas City Zoo, escaped from her enclosure by unscrewing four bolts and removing the Plexiglass window. Zoo officials said any human would need a wrench to unscrew the bolts. Cheyenne was tranquilized and returned to captivity and the Plexiglass was replaced with steel.

A leopard at the San Francisco Zoo attacked and mauled a zookeeper, causing deep wounds to the man’s neck.

Babe, a 36 year old elephant died of suspected kidney failure. Her calf also died stillborn last month after a stalled labor and Caesarian section on April 23. Babe would’ve been the oldest elephant to be bred and become a first-time mother in a No American zoo.

A leopard at a petting zoo bit a 7-year-old visitor.

Laurie Stober, a 25-year-old zookeeper was offering a grape to a caged polar bear when it pushed its teeth through the bars and grabbed her fingers. The bear chewed up her right arm almost to the elbow before biting it off and freeing her.

She survived and received reconstructive surgery, and the incident led to a lawsuit, a trial, and allegations that the zoo ignored danger warnings from Stober and other staff.

A rampaging elephant named Jo-Jo at Lion Country Safari gored a handler with her tusks after the animal lifted the man with her trunk, spun him around, and threw him twice to the ground after being disciplined. The handler survived after emergency surgery. The elephant later died when she was sedated to be moved to isolation.

An elephant at the San Francisco Zoo pushed an elephant keeper into the moat, causing him to suffer a fractured back.