Search Exotic Incidents Database

A female rhinoceros hornbill died at the Toledo Zoo from what officials believed was heart disease. The zoo had been trying to breed her.

The owner of a nature preserve was bitten by an 8-ft-long alligator and dragged 15 feet into the water after he tried a stunt of jumping on the alligator’s back for a ride and wrestling the alligator. The man suffered a shattered pinky, broken ring finger, and puncture wounds to his hand. Despite the incident, he stated that he wss unlikely to give up alligator wrestling.

A 500-lb Bengal tiger attacked and killed a 52-year-old woman named Cynthia Gamble on her property, where she kept many tigers. A man hired to do work on the property found her mauled body in a pen. Officials were forced to euthanize the tiger to reach the woman’s body, and the tiger was discovered to be 100 lbs underweight. The USDA had inspected her facility on 05/18/05 and cited her for failing to prove her animals were being fed an adequate diet. No follow-up was conducted before the death of the woman.

A man crashed his car after his snake had wrapped around his neck and began attacking him.

A big cat, thought to be a tiger, was spotted roaming in a local community.

The State of California ordered Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch to be shut down. Jackson began selling off his exotic animals, including elephants, tigers, orangutans, crocodile, and giraffes, for as little as one-quarter of their true value. A later report (04/26/06) stated that Jackson had quietly employed staff to care for his animals, which remained in his Neverland zoo.

The USDA opened a fourth investigation into Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus following an incident in which two elephants ran amok inside a San Juan arena. The elephants reportedly sustained injuries after being chased under the arena’s bleachers. Angelica, one of the elephants in the incident, is the same elephant videotaped being chained and beaten by bullhook, an incident for which Ringling is also under investigation.

Mamie, a 45-year-old African elephant at the Knoxville Zoo, was euthanized after 11 months of declining health. For the last 15 years Mamie suffered arthritis and foot problems. Born in Africa, Mamie came to Knoxville in 1979 from a zoo in Buffalo, NY.

A trucker transporting a tiger to the Putnam County Fair was bitten and suffered severed tendons in his forearm after sticking his arm in the tiger’s cage.

A rhesus monkey bit a person. The monkey was euthanized.