Search Exotic Incidents Database

A woman and her two dogs encountered a nine-foot green anaconda in their yard. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers took the snake to a veterinary facility where it was euthanized.

Green anacondas are not native to Florida, and was likely owned as a pet.

A man stole a piebald python from a PetSmart. Police believe the same man may have also stolen another snake at a different PetSmart.

A 10-year-old male Black and White Ruffled lemur named Potter escaped his enclosure at the Jacksonville Zoo. Zoo staff spotted him in a tree along the main path and redirected visitors so they didn’t get too close to wildlife.

Crews spent a couple of hours trying to get him down and eventually had to use a tranquilizer. Potter was returned to his enclosure.

Chai, a 37-year-old Asian elephant, died at the Oklahoma City Zoo. She had been transferred from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle the previous May, despite significant pressure from activists to transfer her to a sanctuary. Zoo officials said there had been no red flags about her health, but medical documents and keeper notes revealed that Chai suffered multiple injuries, weight loss, skin lesions, chewing problems, and other incidents in the months before her death, including two times when she was unable to get up on her own.

The body of a woman was found along with two live monkeys in a hotel room in southwest Florida. The two capuchin monkeys were found in carriers.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the animals would be placed with someone licensed to own a capuchin monkey as an exotic pet.

About 20 exotic mammals, spiders, and fish were discovered in squalid conditions in a home in rural Southwest Michigan after animal control responded to a complaint about small kangaroos jumping around in a backyard.

The animals discovered included four wallabies, an aggressive monkey, sugar gliders, a coatimundi, a tarantula, a large venomous spider, several fish and an exotic rat-like animal.

Troy Leiby and Jessica Archberger face felony charges of animal abandonment and cruelty.

Buster, the kangaroo who escaped a Staten Island home on October 17, 2015, was surrendered to Popcorn Park Zoo in New Jersey and died three days later.

The 18-month-old kangaroo was diagnosed with toxoplasmosis, an illness caused by a parasite. Experts also blamed his decline in health on stress stemming from his living conditions, which can make kangaroos susceptible to other diseases.

A wolf-dog hybrid named Wolfie was shot to death. He escaped from his owner about six months ago and had been roaming the neighborhood since then. The owner was unsuccessful in her attempts to catch him and eventually had to move out of town, leaving the dog behind. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department had also tried to recapture him without success.

A six-foot, 200-lb alligator was removed from a suburban Lansing home where it had been living for the last 26 years. The owner would periodically put it out into his backyard, but most of the time it stayed in a large cage.

The alligator was discovered by an appliance repairman. He contacted animal control officers, who removed it from the house.

The owner told police he got the alligator when it was a baby at a swap meet in Kankakee. He is charged with misdemeanor unlawful possession of an endangered species.

Mike, a two-year-old elephant owned by Ringling Brothers, died of a virus called elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) at their “conservation center.”