2. There Have Been A Few Weird (And Scary) Incidents At The Zoo

There are always those crazy stories that come out about people doing weird things in zoos or there being some bizarre incident turned deadly. The Bronx Zoo has, unfortunately, been a victim to incidents of human stupidity. In 2001, a 32-year old, Peter Vitique scaled a 20-foot wall in the Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit and apparently stripped down to his rex boxers in order to be “one with the gorillas.”

In 2004, another man stripped off his clothing and jumped into the caiman tank in the World of Darkness exhibit (Caiman’s are related to alligators if that give’s you any idea of how dangerous they are). He was pulled out by police and zookeepers before he was hurt.

On Friday September 21, 2012 a very weird and terrifying incident occurred. 25-year old David Villabolos jumped from the monorail pictured above and into the tiger enclosure where he proceeded to be mauled by 400-pound Siberian tiger, Bachuta. Initial reports claimed Villabolos accidentially tripped into the enclosure, but in a statement he declared “Everybody in life makes choices.”

It was another incident of wanting to feel closer to animals. Villabolos survived the attack and Bachuta was not put down, since it was not her fault. Zoo Director Jim Breheny declared the tiger “did nothing wrong.” As a skilled predator, Bachuta could have easily killed Villabolos in the 10 minutes he was alone with animal. But the tiger didn’t do that and so did not need nor deserve to be put down.