19 People Who Climbed The Fence At The Zoo
Nothing good is going to come of a situation that involves being in a cage with a wild animal at the zoo. And yet, people keep putting themselves in situations where — despite warnings from the zoo and others around them — they come face-to-face with lions, tigers, and bears. Some of these people were taken out by a caged animal; others were merely assaulted by a captive wild beast.
These are the tales of the outlandish and sometimes most inebriated people to ever jump the fence at a zoo.
Zoo Officials Terminate Lions To Save Man
Chilean zoo officials had to shoot and claim the lives of two lions after a man removed his clothes and climbed into their enclosure. According to onlookers, he was taunting the cats and chanting “very apocalyptic, very religious” proverbs.
Officials later found what they thought was a note with his clothes, but the paper mostly had very Christian messaging and drawings of lions. Officials were forced to slay the lions in order to save him. Crowds watched as the two cats were shot.
Tiger Mauls Lady's Hand In Halloween Prank
An intoxicated woman at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, got her hand bitten by a tiger when she disobeyed zoo rules and reached into its cage to give it a pet on Halloween night in 2015. The 18-year-old Malayan tiger bit the 33-year-old's hand, and the woman was rushed to the hospital.
Barefoot Man Wants A Bear Hug
A 32-year-old man wandered into the bear enclosure at the Warsaw Zoo in May 2015, and he got into a fight with a female bear named Sabina. Witnesses found blood around the enclosure and alerted police, who had to rescue the shoeless, shorts-wearing man from the cage.
He managed to survive the fight with only a bite to the arm and a fine for "provoking the animal into aggression."
Man Loses Fight With Lion
In 1989, 32-year-old Australian man Ellie Quo reportedly decided to seek out a martial arts matchup that would test his skills in Kung Fu. He decided to challenge a lion at the Melbourne Zoo to a duel — a duel that he promptly lost
In the middle of the night, he snuck into the zoo and scaled the lion enclosure. Whatever fight ensued, Quo perished as a result.
Two Men Mauled While Trying To Honor Tiger
Prakesh Tiwari and Suresh Rai decided to visit Shiva, a 13-year-old Bengal Tiger at the Calcutta Zoo, in the course of their New Year’s festivities in 1996. They crossed the moat surrounding his enclosure to present him with a marigold garland.
Shiva lunged at Rai as he threw the garland around the tiger's neck. Tiwari intervened by kicking the tiger in the face. Tiwari perished in the assault; Rai survived.
Man Ravaged By Monkeys Trying To Retrieve Cell Phone
In 2007, Zheng Dong was taking pictures of macaque monkeys at the Fuzhou Zoo in China when one of the monkeys snatched his phone. Zheng jumped the fence to retrieve the phone. Three of the monkeys surrounded him and scratched at him until several zookeepers came to his rescue and removed him from the cage.
While Dong made it out alive, his phone was chewed up beyond repair. He sought compensation from the zoo.