Search Exotic Incidents Database

A male Japanese giant salamander passed away of suspected kidney and heart disease.

A 19-month-old red panda named Sunny escaped from her enclosure.

A woman was bitten by her 2-foot-long pet ball python (named RuPaul) as she tried to give him a bath. It took a while for law enforcement officials to dislodge the snake’s mouth from her hand. Both the woman and the snake recovered.

A father and son got into an argument over the purchase of a baby albino corn snake from NJ Exotic Pets. One of the males threw the reptile to the ground, stepped on its head, and killed it, according to a police report.

A two-foot pet alligator was taken into custody by animal control officers after his owner was arrested on an unrelated warrant.

Freddie Mercury, a 4-year-old macaw, escaped from his owner’s house and eluded capture for over a week. He was captured by two police officers, one of whom was bitten as he grabbed the bird.

Josephine, a 49-year-old gorilla, was euthanized after suffering from several health issues that slowly incapacitated her. She is the grandmother of Harambe, the gorilla who was infamously shot at the Cincinnati Zoo in May, 2016.

A resident photographed a large cat on his property, and police, in consultation with a local exotic animal expert, said the feline was possibly a cougar. The expert said that the cat may have been illegally owned by a resident in the area and escaped.

Lily, an 18-year-old female white-handed gibbon, died. Lily and her parents were transferred to the new gibbon habitat at the end of December, after which zoo staff noticed that she was lethargic and wasn’t eating much food. She was returned to her old habitat for several days to see if she would improve, but she did not.

A zebra from a private collection of animals was found dead and had been skinned. The zebra lived in a herd of 113 zebras at Hearst Ranch. Ranch officials believe the zebra fell into a creek and drowned, and was skinned after it was swept into the ocean and washed up on a beach.