Search Exotic Incidents Database

Results 141 - 150 of 3024 total
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Location/Date
Description
Species
October 30, 2019
Oxford, IN

Oxford, Ind. — Indiana authorities described it as a “reptile home.” 140 of them in all. On Wednesday a startling discovery was made, an eight-foot-long python was wrapped around a woman’s neck. The woman, identified as 36-year-old Laura Hurst, died Wednesday night after the snake apparently strangled her. Medics who responded to the scene “attempted life saving measures” but could not revive her, state police said.

  • Reptiles
October 20, 2019
Canal Winchester, OH

Stacy Elliott, dad of Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, was hit with 21 charges for the illegal purchase of an African wild cat that attacked a neighbor’s dog in Ohio. Stacy Elliott’s mid-sized, spotted feline — called a serval — was shot dead by authorities after the pooch attack on Oct. 12. The animal had been terrorizing the elder Elliott’s Canal Winchester neighborhood for two days before the fatal episode. He did not possess the proper permits to own the animal in Ohio.

  • Small Cats
October 2, 2019
Bronx, NY

A woman was captured on video jumping into a lion enclosure at the Bronx Zoo on Saturday. Now, the New York City zoo is speaking out about how she put herself and other patrons in danger. In the video, the woman says that she “wants to get closer” and climbs over a barrier in order to approach a male lion. She continuously waves at it and you can tell she’s saying something to the animal, though it can’t clearly be heard. The Bronx Zoo has fairly low barriers.

  • Big Cats
September 5, 2019
Santa Fe, NM

The field day has ended for the escaped Sub-Saharan African serval cat that grabbed headlines after Santa Feans spotted it roaming around Hyde Memorial State Park. Conservation Officer Manuel Overby of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department caught the cat in a “live cage.”

Live cages are a safe and humane way to capture large animals such as the serval, says Game and Fish spokeswoman Tristanna Bickford. Overby placed a rotisserie chicken in the cage and left the area. The cat has been transferred to Albuquerque BioPark while officers investigate whether it was being held as a pet and how it escaped.

“At this time the Department believes the serval was being kept as a pet and has no evidence to support it being from a captive breeding facility,” a Game and Fish news release says. Servals are illegal to import or posses in New Mexico.

  • Small Cats
August 15, 2019
Romulus, MI

Romulus police raided a strip mall site that held exotic animals such as hedgehogs, kangaroos, Flemish giant rabbits, iguanas, a peacock and a tortoise. The owner said he puts on exotic zoo shows for schools and libraries throughout Michigan. “Our staff witnessed poor living conditions and it is believed the kangaroos were not receiving regular care, which is why the city of Romulus seized them.

  • Other
July 30, 2019
Oceola Township, MI

On Tuesday, July 30, 2019, a woman driving home from work in Oceola Township in Michigan spotted a gator scurrying across the road in front of her vehicle, according to a news release from the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies found the 2-foot-long, 10-pound creature a few feet from the road near a pine tree and captured it safely. It’s been turned over to the Livingston County Animal Shelter and will be taken to the Critchlow sanctuary if not claimed.

 

  • Reptiles
July 25, 2019
Dayton Township, MI

DAYTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A man fatally shot an escaped alligator after he says the reptile lunged at him at his rural Michigan property.

Derrick Fells says he was collecting minnows Saturday in Tuscola County’s Dayton Township when he heard a “hissing” sound and the alligator tried to attack. Fells said that he apparently startled the reptile, and it “turned on me.” He says he shot it with a pistol and called 911. The sheriff’s office says the reptile was 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 meters) long.

Investigators determined that the alligator escaped from a fenced enclosure at a nearby property where an exotic animal rescue was operating. Two other alligators are there, along with snakes, tortoises, turtles and emus.

  • Reptiles
July 24, 2019
Lake Worth, FL

A Florida man will likely think twice about feeding wild animals after he was recently attacked by a raccoon-like rainforest creature who came charging at him after being fed the night prior.

Late last month, the man was leaving his girlfriend’s Lake Worth Beach apartment in the morning when a kinkajou, which are typically found in forests in Central and South America, came barging into the second-story residence and attacked him. The four-legged rainforest creature — which resembles a monkey, but is related to raccoons — had been waiting outside the door all night hoping to get more food after the man and some neighbors fed it watermelon the day prior, according to the outlet.

The man only suffered non-life-threatening injuries from the encounter with the furry animal, including a bite to the foot and scratches on the back of his leg.

  • Other
July 21, 2019
Milford, MI

MILFORD, MI – People in a Milford neighborhood lassoed their neighbor’s pet gator when they found it tromping across their yard after it made an escape.

The owner of the 4-foot-long gator named Puff took it back home. The alligator had a small harness around the front of his body, with a broken wire attached. Police were able to reach the owner, who was at a Madison Heights water park with his family, and he arrived about an hour later, taping the alligator’s mouth shut and carrying him home.

  • Reptiles

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