Search Exotic Incidents Database

Travis the giraffe died from an acute and untreatable urinary condition.

Officials were tipped off to a pet alligator via email. The 6-year-old, 4-foot-long gator, named Boots, was then voluntarily surrendered by his owner. It is illegal to keep a pet alligator in Washington, but the owner said he didn’t know he was breaking the law and he will not be facing charges.

A woman reported seeing a 10-foot snake at a park, and police also saw it a few days later. No snake that large is native to Maine, so it likely an escaped or abandoned pet. It has evaded capture.

Police received a report that a man was keeping an alligator in his backyard, and then released the gator over the fence. The gator has not been located.

Keeping an alligator is illegal in Washington.

A humphead wrasse named Percy died, likely of cancer.

Dizzy, a 12 lb guenon monkey, twisted a door knob and let himself out of his enclosure. At the time, a zoo employee had been cleaning out the enclosure, and exited in order to answer a question from a visitor. Dizzy got into the trees above the zoo enclosure and cleared the fence around the zoo, and got into the trees throughout Forest Park. He was recaptured two days later.

Approximately 400 animals were seized from a home. Officers with the Animal Crime Unit found more than 250 birds (mostly exotic), 151 reptiles (mostly turtles, including an alligator snapping turtle), chinchillas, prairie dogs, sugar gliders, and a skunk. The animals were kept in horribly cramped and unsanitary conditions.

A turkey vulture named Scott, who was brought to the zoo in 2014 and deemed non-releasable, died.

A teenager named JC Lara was alerted by his dog to a 14-foot python in his backyard. Lara and his father shot and buried the snake, which was likely an escaped pet.

A waterbuck named Neva escaped from her enclosure on her first day at the zoo. She remained within the zoo perimeter, and was tranquilized and recaptured about two hours later.