Search Exotic Incidents Database

ST. LOUIS – A man is in police custody after illegally entering an animal enclosure at the Saint Louis Zoo. The incident happened just before 5 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22, at Big Cat Country, according to a zoo spokesman.

The man climbed over a fence and onto a barrier of artificial rockwork, just above the animal habitat. The habitat is home to Amur leopards, Amur tigers, and ocelots. Other zoo guests immediately alerted security. Members of zoo security and animal care staff arrived at the habitat within minutes. However, the man had already climbed back down and on the public walking path.

The man was not injured and the animals were unharmed, Brennan said. Zoo security took the man into custody and turned him over to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The zoo is investigating the matter to see if any modifications need to be made to prevent a similar incident from happening.

PLYMOUTH, MA – A missing pet in Plymouth, Massachusetts, is drawing attention; a 10-foot boa constrictor named Linguine. A Plymouth resident went to Facebook to seek help after their pet boa constrictor Linguine escaped from the home. They said they suspected the snake escaped into a nearby basement or utility area. The owner said the snake measures about 10 feet long and nearly 20 inches around.

BLOOMFIELD, MO – A pet kangaroo named Roofus fled after being spooked by loud machinery, leaving his owners searching daily and asking locals to report sightings. According to his owners, a loud excavator scared him. In a panic, Roofus escaped his enclosure.

GREENVILLE, SC – A four-year-old Amur leopard named Irina has been captured after escaping her enclosure and was loose within the zoo grounds at the Greenville Zoo in South Carolina. City staff and Greenville Police responded. A perimeter was established according to zoo emergency protocols. Zoo staff and guests were evacuated to strategic locations as a precaution.

At approximately 9:20, Greenville Zoo emergency response teams were able to successfully tranquilize Irina. After a precautionary second injection, she was transported back to the secured leopard den.

AUBURN, IN – A 20-year-old alligator that disappeared in Indiana after slipping out of a cooler has been safely reunited with his owner after spending a month on the loose.

Mark Kolhorst runs Mark’s Ark, a business in Auburn, Indiana, that brings animal presentations to schools and other venues. On June 5, after a wildlife show in DeKalb County, he was unloading his vehicle when Irwin, his captive alligator, got loose.

Kolhorst said someone saw Irwin in a neighbor’s pond two days before the search ended, but he was unable to catch him then. Staff with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources later captured the reptile on July 5 and brought him back home.

During the roughly monthlong disappearance, Kolhorst said he was especially worried about Irwin’s safety after learning that a neighbor had reportedly threatened to shoot him.

OMAHA, NE – Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium announced the death of its 11-year-old cheetah.

Chafu was recently treated for a hiatal hernia. The zoo said he recovered from the hernia, but he did not regain his mobility.

“After exhausting all treatment options, our Animal Care and Animal Health experts made the incredibly difficult but compassionate decision to provide Chafu with a peaceful passing through humane euthanasia,” said the zoo.

SALINA, KS – The Rolling Hills Zoo in Salina is mourning the loss of male chimpanzee Shudak.

The zoo said in a post that the animal care team discovered Shudak had died on Friday morning. His cause of death is under investigation. Shudak was 48 years old and had been at the zoo for almost 29 years after arriving in 1997. The zoo said he was one of its original four chimpanzees.

FORT WAYNE, IN – The Fort Wayne Zoo evacuated one of its many exhibits Friday after an animal escaped from their enclosure. According to the Fort Wayne Zoo, zoo-goers were directed to evacuate the African Savanna exhibit after a wildebeest escaped from their enclosure in the African Veldt.

The male white-bearded wildebeest is one of the zoo’s most recent animal acquisitions as of July 7, according to a Facebook post from the zoo. As the wildebeest acclimates to their new home, the other animals in the African Veldt are quarantined away from the Veldt.

A zoo staff member had noticed that the wildebeest had moved from their primary habitat to an adjacent habitat through a shared pond space just after noon on Friday in the African Veldt area. The team member made a radio call to initiate their emergency response protocol and cleared the area of guests. Once the area was cleared, the wildebeest went back to the enclosure of his own volition and was monitored closely by animal care and veterinary teams.

MILWAUKEE, WI – Ginger, the white tiger whose illness drew attention from over 500,000 Facebook followers, died June 27 at Shalom Wildlife Zoo in Washington County, the zoo said in a Facebook post.

Ginger had been sick for more than a week. The cause of her death has not yet been publicly disclosed. Ginger’s illness first surfaced in a Facebook post on June 18, when the zoo stated that she “[wasn’t] feeling well.” The next day, it was announced that she had a uterine infection and was being treated with medication.

On June 23, four days before she died, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asked Shalom which veterinarians were treating Ginger and what diagnostic steps had been taken. Zoo co-owner David Fechter declined to answer, citing Wisconsin’s physician-patient privilege – a legal protection that applies to humans and does not extend to animals.

Two of Ginger’s cubs, Khan and Nina, drowned in a partially frozen pond at the zoo in November 2022. The USDA cited Shalom for failing to protect the animals during unsafe weather conditions and issued an official warning.

LANCASTER, TX – Earlier this week, a giraffe went missing in Central Texas. Now, an emu is on the loose in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Temu the emu escaped from the Bear Creek area in Lancaster, just south of Dallas. He was last seen near Parkerville Road and Interstate 35. He is about 15 months old and is fully grown.

Temu’s owner told FOX 4 that she has already reached out to the local authorities and several animal groups for help. “We still haven’t located him. I just got home from walking the fields and woods again. I’m just praying he’s okay,” Aleta Cronce said. Cronce said she raised Temu by hand with another female emu, who is currently very distraught.