Search Exotic Incidents Database

An employee at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium in Nebraska was taken to the hospital in critical condition after being stung by a freshwater stingray. The stingray’s barb stung the woman in her ankle by penetrating through her boot and wader.

Apparently, the employee was working in the jungle habitat water on the lower level, which is currently closed to the public. A total of 19 stingrays live in that area of the enclosure.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a man was reunited with his lost pet tortoise after escaping from his enclosure. The man realized his tortoise had been taken to a privately-owned exotic wildlife facility in Broken Arrow when his friend sent him a Facebook post with his tortoise’s picture as their most recent rescue.

In British Columbia, Canada, residents near Qualicum Beach are afraid. Two servals, a male and a female, escaped from a nearby property and killed a 19-year-old domestic cat. According to a local, “The neighborhood is quite afraid. Children can’t walk to the bus stop. I have a little dog; I can’t let her out… There aren’t any laws protecting the community from these animals.” According to Coastal Animal Control, a staff member said they knew of the situation. However, animal control only has the authority to deal with dogs in the area, meaning it’s ultimately up to the owner to catch the cats.

A woman from Texas and a man from California were federally indicted in the beginning of October after law enforcement discovered that they had both sold a live jaguar cub on separate occasions.

According to the DOJ, the woman involved was charged in a four-count indictment for interstate transportation of an endangered species, interstate sale of an endangered species, trafficking prohibited wildlife species, and trafficking endangered species.

The man who bought the cub was also federally charged with interstate transportation of an endangered species, trafficking prohibited wildlife species, and trafficking endangered species.

After briefly owning the cub, he then sold the jaguar to another buyer for $20,000, when an unknown party reported concerns for the jaguar. Shortly after, a sanctuary rehomed the cub. If convicted of all charges, the woman faces up to eight years in federal prison and a $700,000 fine, while the man faces up to seven years and a $600,000 fine.

Boerne, TX – Austin Riley raised Waylon the warthog from birth on his family’s ranch after Waylon’s mother died during labor. “I just kinda became his parent, his dad, really,” Austin said. “Early on, I’d take him with me through the drive-through at Whataburger, and he’d sit in the front seat, happy as can be.” Waylon soon grew to be “two hundred fifty pounds of pure protein,” according to Austin. By then, Austin had moved him to a large pen a few hundred yards away from the family home. Austin described his relationship with Waylon as sometimes playful: “He loved being a little pain in the butt,” Riley recalled. “But in the end, we had an understanding, and he never showed one sign of aggression.”

Then, one day, without any warning, Waylon stabbed Austin with his razor-sharp, seven-inch tusks at least fifteen times. The attack had shredded Austin’s lower body and filled his boots with blood, and then left gaping holes in his torso and neck. Before Austin could fight back, Waylon had hooked his owner four more times in the upper left leg and genitals.

Instinctively, during the attack, Austin grabbed onto Waylon’s tusks, which sliced open his wrist. After three more gashes in his abdomen, Austin attempted to put Waylon in a headlock. But the animal jerked upward, plunging his tusk into Austin’s voice box, leaving a quarter-size hole in his neck. The blow knocked him onto his back, leaving his entire body exposed to the rampaging boar. “At that point, I just knew I couldn’t let him hit my head or get on top of me,” Austin said. “That’s what I kept thinking.”

Lying on his back and bleeding out, Austin might have looked dead to Waylon. The warthog relented, momentarily. Austin then was able to swing his body over the fence and escape the warthog’s pen. Austin was then able to make a phone call to his dad. From there, he was taken to the hospital. By the time Austin reached University Hospital in San Antonio, thirty minutes away from the ranch, he’d lost nearly half his blood; any more, and he would’ve died, according to the doctors. Waylon’s tusks came within millimeters of severing multiple arteries. It would take doctors ten surgeries to keep Austin alive.

The day after the attack, Austin’s parents asked a family friend to execute Waylon. After the killing, Waylon’s head was cut off and sent to a lab so he could be tested for rabies. The results came back negative.

The Waccatee Zoo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, will be permanently closing, according to a letter from the facility’s attorney. In April, PETA filed a lawsuit alleging the facility keeps more than 460 animals, including lions, ring-tailed lemurs, and other ESA-protected animals, in conditions that deny them of appropriate veterinary care and other necessities. Several statements indicate that animals were moved from the property to other problematic zoos following the allegations, further denying them proper care and restricting legal parties’ access to evidence needed for a fair trial.

A female Mexican gray wolf escaped an off-exhibit enclosure at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Ohio and roamed the same zoo walkways shared by visitors. Guests at the zoo reported being rushed into buildings for safety while staff secured the animal. She ran through the public space for about five minutes before zoo staff were able to get her to a nonpublic area, where they then tranquilized her with a dart. The zoo said no guests or employees were harmed.

Dr. Chris Kuhar, Executive Director of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, reported that the wolves were moved into an off-exhibit area while work was being done on the main exhibit. Investigators stated that the wolf breached the off-exhibit area by scaling the containment walls and creating a gap in the top of the enclosure.

BORN FREE USA – On September 9, 2021, Maliki, a five-year-old vervet monkey arrived at the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary. He had been kept as a pet in a private home since he was a baby.  All monkeys are wild animals who will lash out in situations that feel threatening. This occurred when Maliki predictably bit his former owner, she realized just how dangerous these animals are and she made the right decision: to surrender him into the expert care of a sanctuary. Sadly, many monkeys are not so lucky and an attack by a ‘pet’ monkey can lead to significant injury to people and, more often than not, the subsequent death of the monkey.

A man who climbed over a wooden barrier at the Range of the Jaguar display at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens was mauled Wednesday when a big cat took swipes at him through a metal mesh fence. The jaguar was identified as 12-year-old Harry zoo officials confirmed. The 23-year-old man from Virginia, whose name was not released, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, zoo officials said. He went over a waist-high safety barrier that puts about 4 feet of empty space between visitors and the jaguar exhibit’s fence, according to zoo marketing director Kelly Rouillard. Then he made “a foolish decision” and began taunting the jaguar, putting his hand on and through the fence, Rouillard said.