Search Exotic Incidents Database

Zookeepers exhibited tiger cubs without any distance or barriers between the animals and the public, and a member of the public was injured by one of the tigers.

A inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed that the last four inches of an adult olive baboon’s tail were bent at an abnormal angle. As the inspector watched, the baboon began chewing on the end of the tail, and it fell off. He was not the only olive baboon with a tail injury. Additionally, there was an adult capuchin monkey with an injury to his left thumb, and a red lechwe antelope that could not bear weight on his left front leg.

A 55-year old zoo elephant escaped from her enclosure at the Buttonwood Zoo and suffered exposure to extreme cold. Someone had forgotten to padlock the door. She is being monitored for hypothermia.

Two 8-month old tiger cubs were found in separate backyards. AZ Game and Fish officials took custody and transferred the cubs to Out of Africa Wildlife Park. The cubs are believed to be siblings. It is illegal to own a tiger as a pet in Arizona. The owner has not been found.

A man found a dead 7-foot long constrictor in his workshop believed to be an abandoned or escaped snake.

A lioness escaped her enclosure at the Survival Outreach Sanctuary after she dug under the fence into open grounds. The lioness was later found, tranquilized and returned to her enclosure. A week later at the same sanctuary, a woman was gored by a deer and lost her eye.

A 13-year old giraffe named Jigsaw died when he aspirated after being attacked by another giraffe, Mesi. Mesi broke through a large metial gate and sparred with Jigsaw until the older giraffe fell. Jigsaw was considered to be in good health prior to his death.

Tiga Tahun, a 4 1/2-year-old Malayan tiger died instantaneously when her male partner Connor, in the course of grabbing her by the neck during mating, severely injured her spinal cord and caused damage to her respiratory system.

A jaguar briefly escaped his main holding area before the zoo opened. A zoo spokeswoman said the animal never got outside of a secondary containment area.

Montgomery Zoo’s white, female tiger escaped through an underwater break in the fence into the zoo’s Asian hoof stock exhibit. The tiger was out of her exhibit for approximately 30 minutes before staff were able to tranquilize and return her to her enclosure. The zoo was in lockdown for the duration and none of the hoof-stock animals were injured or killed.