Search Exotic Incidents Database

One of the zoo’s two juvenile Malayan tigers, named Hadiah, died. The suspected cause of death is gastric dilation, a stomach condition.

A man named Jesus Cruz-Concepcion was arrested with a Gaboon Viper, two cobras, a raccoon, an alligator, and a squirrel in his house. He did not have a permit, and faces felony charges related to keeping wild animals. The animals were seized by law enforcement.

At SeaWorld San Antonio’s Dine With Shamu show, two young killer whale siblings – Sakari (age 6) and Kamea (age 2) – started fighting after they were separated from their mother for the performance. When they resurfaced, Sakari’s chin was dripping with blood.

Two men broke into Land and Sea Exotic Pet Store and stole six hybrid snakes, two bearded dragons, and several tanks. The men dropped two of the snakes as they made their getaway. Both snakes are accounted for and in good condition.

A juvenile warthog named Zuberi was hospitalized for more than a month with a serious liver ailment. His two siblings previously died of the same condition. It was determined that their livers were poisoned by a plant toxin, but the source – whether it was in food or in a plant eaten inside the warthog enclosure – is not known, according to zoo officials.

Hujan, a 15-year-old male siamang, died. He had recently developed a terminal medical condition that created a severe loss of blood flow to the legs and caused muscle deterioration, costing him the use of his legs.

Two unidentified men stole a sulcata tortoise, a leatherback bearded dragon, a lemon blast python, and a Colombian red tail boa constrictor from the Living Things Pet Store.

Department of Homeland Security and U.S. customs agents intercepted a box from the Philippines that contained venomous pit vipers, several of which had died. Agents then went to the home of the person to whom the box was address and discovered additional snakes. There is an ongoing investigation, and it is believed the snakes were meant as personal pets and not to be sold.

A zebra with a pink harness was seen in a parked minivan outside an Athens Texas Roadhouse. A later social media post by the owner indicated that she was traveling to Oklahoma with the zebra (named Zelda), along with a crate of miniature kangaroos. She was pulled over and ticketed for traveling with the exotic animals.

A man named Gustave David Salazar was charged with the illegal purchase or sales of reptiles and wildlife and related counts following an 18-month undercover investigation of his timber rattlesnake transactions by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

Salazar acknowledged that some of the rattlesnakes were used for “food and snake liquor.”