Search Exotic Incidents Database

An Andean bear named Ben escaped his enclosure at the Saint Louis Zoo this week. According to Billy Brennan, a zoo spokesman, the incident occurred outside operating hours and was resolved before the zoo opened to the public.

Ben escaped by manipulating the steel mash surrounding his outdoor habitat, which caused a cable to give way and allowed him to make his way out.

Luckily, zoo staff were able to tranquilize Ben and safely return him to his enclosure before more permanent and lethal alternative methods were used to protect the public safety of the zoo staff and surrounding community. During dangerous wild animal incidents, this is rarely the outcome.

Police in Phoenix, Arizona, confiscated a tiger cub after a man was found trying to sell the cub online via social media platforms. Police went undercover to investigate and also found baby snapping turtles and a baby American alligator in a small aquarium. The police discovered the tiger cub in the man’s residence, growling in a small cage the size of a dog kennel.

UPDATE: In Albuquerque, New Mexico, a federal search warrant indicates that a tiger cub named Duke found last month may have been part of a larger illegal exotic animal smuggling operation. In early January, authorities found the tiger at a trailer when police were investigating a shooting.

In the two homes searched, authorities discovered two tiger cubs, a capuchin monkey, and a crocodile; evidence of numerous other exotic animals having been there; and guns, drugs, and money. The animals were allegedly obtained from a contact in Mexico. The search warrant states that the smuggler was hoping to sell the animals for double to triple what he paid for them, and that he arranged for the tiger found in January to be sent to New York for drugs and money.

The Dallas Zoo closed and issued a ‘code blue’ for a missing clouded leopard. Zoo officials believe that the leopard is hiding onsite.

While officials described the escape as “a serious situation,” they added that the Dallas Police Department is assisting in their efforts to find the leopard, named Nova, who was not in her enclosure when staff arrived earlier this morning.

UPDATE: Investigating officials later discovered that the Dallas Zoo enclosure of the escaped clouded leopard was “intentionally” cut, and a similar hole was also found in a langur enclosure. Investigators are unsure if the two incidents are connected, police disclosed. A criminal investigation is ongoing.

An Illinois family discovered a ring-tailed lemur in their garage when investigating strange noises coming from that area. It is illegal to own a lemur in Illinois, as lemurs are on the state’s list of Endangered and otherwise protected species. After the family found the lemur, they notified the Illinois Conservation Police, who then reached out to the Miller Park Zoo for assistance, where the animal was later re-homed.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, police say they’ve located a tiger while investigating a shooting. Officers allegedly followed a trail of blood to a trailer, where they expected to find a person who had been injured. Instead, they found a Bengal tiger cub in a dog crate. Officials could not confirm where the tiger cub came from.

The cub was taken to the ABQ BioPark Zoo. According to the New Mexico Game and Fish spokesperson, there have been a substantial increase in inquiries of how to possess wild animals as pets, which may have a connection to the glamorized portrayal of these animals in popular media.

A man staying at a Denver-area Best Western hotel found a snake crawling out of the toilet in his room. “I walked past the bathroom and… there was a snake coming out of the toilet,” the man stated. “It was about a foot out of the toilet when I [saw] it, and the toilet was closed and it was still trying to come up on out of it.”

Local police arrived at the scene and removed the snake. The increasingly frequent abandonment of pet exotic animals is likely to blame for this hotel room scare. The previous owner of the snake presumably dumped the snake at the hotel and left.

A coati was just confiscated from a man’s porch in San Antonio, Texas.

The man called Animal Control when he saw the animal “clinging to the pillar of his porch entryway looking back at him.” Animal Control confiscated the wild, non-native animal, whose natural range includes parts of Central and South America. The animal was then transferred to the Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, Inc.