Search Exotic Incidents Database

Animal Control officers found an alligator in a park and captured him. The officers located the “owner” who stated that he could no longer afford to keep the animal so he let the alligator go.

A wallaroo that escaped his enclosure and was loose for over a month was subsequently recaptured and returned.

Serval cats escaped or were deliberately released from their enclosures. One was found.

A woman was mauled by a 500-lb bear in her home. The bear escaped from its pen and broke into the woman’s house. The woman was hospitalized for her injuries. She suffered a bruised lung, broken rib, and lacerations.

Animal Control officers seized 19 wolf-dog hybrids after they were found unattended, chained to trees, with no food and shelter.

A bear cub was killed in a fire at an exotic animal farm. Officials said there were at least three bears, one lion, and another wild cat in the cages at the exotic animal farm.

Two tigers at Keepers of the Wild animal sanctuary attacked a woman such that she requireed surgery. The owner of the sanctuary apparently did not report the incident, but the USDA found out and opened an investigation into the attack.

A wild cat was spotted roaming a neighborhood near a school. Suspicions were that the animal was either a mountain lion or other large cat.

A 2-1/2-year-old male bongo antelope died at the Toledo Zoo just one day after he broke his rear leg in a panicked run that included jumping a fence and ending up in the moat of the rhinoceros exhibit. Witnesses said the antelope panicked after he butted into an electrified wire and his horns became entangled in wire. He also had abrasions on his face. This incident came nine days after an impala was euthanized due to a broken back that occurred while zookeepers loaded the antelope into a trailer for transfer to another zoo.

Koza, a 5-month-old male lion cub, was mauled by an adult lioness at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park after a keeper mistakenly removed a wire barrier separating the cub from the adult lion. The attack severely damaged the cub’s spinal cord and the cub was euthanized. A park spokeswoman said removal of the barrier was “human error.”