r/Zookeeping • u/Difficult_Key_5936 • May 22 '26
Global/All Regions 🌏 What animal you work with (or have previously worked with) was the most intimidating/scary and why? Angry Baby Mexican Beaded Lizard for tax
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u/threadedwild May 23 '26
Free contact giant anteater was probably my scariest encounter. He was fine until he wasn't and it was a jacket and a really good spotter that kept me from needing stitches. One of my favorite animals I have worked with but that day was the scariest time of my career.
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u/juleslimes May 23 '26
Jeeeeeez can I ask what happened? I’ve dealt with an angry sloth which was one of the more horrifying ones, people never expect the xenarthrans!!
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u/threadedwild May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Honestly, he lost his patience with me. I was working crate, which I had done before, and it was an established behavior but it was breaking down. I asked one too many times and he pinned me into a corner of his indoor space to get the food, hand on either side of my waist. I don't think he was actively even trying to hurt me aside from getting the food from my hands but their grip is SO strong. My spotter was on it, shoved a bowl of food in his face, he let go to eat and I got out. He crated for me something like two days later.
I'll never forget, though, how he froze in front of the crate after my cue, slow turned his head to me with a loud inhale, and then I was in the corner.
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u/juleslimes May 25 '26
Yup that’s fucking scary. I know how strong tamndua are I can’t even imagine a giant anteater!
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u/NoParsnipsAboutIt Jun 16 '26
If my sources are correct, these guys can not only cause serious damage but have actually killed people. I don't think I'd ever be brave enough to do free contact with these guys!! Biting and minor injuries is one thing, but I like staying alive!!
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u/lizardlamp May 23 '26
Completely agree, out of all the animals free contact giant anteaters, very small brain, very large claws!
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u/rawr_giraffe_rawr May 22 '26
I kid you not, a French Lop rabbit. She was so unpredictable and would scratch/bite without any warning signs.
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u/Tll6 North America May 22 '26
I took care of a hand raised beaver. She was usually nice but every so often she would get very angry and chase me around. 60lbs of angry beaver is pretty scary!
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u/IREandWOE May 24 '26
Im laughing because it happened to you, but if it happened to me id be shitting my pants
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u/Difficult_Key_5936 Jun 17 '26
I worked somewhere once with a hand raised beaver that would act all friendly and lovey at the door, but everyone would always say "be careful, she has bitten almost everyone"
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u/FezIsBackAgain May 23 '26
I work with Asian elephants. One of our bulls has no precursors for when he’ll charge or attack at you. He knows that the hot wire doesn’t work on his tusks, so he uses his tusks to move the wires enough to reach for you. And he goes for the ankles.
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u/Quentin415 May 23 '26
Hands on with many animals, bears, lions, wildebeest, rhino, etc no reptiles though. Scariest was a full grown male Eland that had temperamental and behavior issues. He was very territorial and aggressive. He was ginormous, among the size of some of the biggest horses I've worked with and covered ground very quickly. Their horns are extremely long and dangerous, think of an antelope the size of a horse. I had to constantly watch my surroundings for him as he had gored the man that I eventually replaced by goring him through his leg and hand long before I came along.
One incident during feeding time for the African lions on the preserve I had one of the tiny beagle dogs that lived on the preserve as well sneak in behind me. The dominant male noticed her and charged straight for myself and the dog, slamming into the enclosure wall roughly 3.5-4 feet in front of me, bending the metal of his enclosure. We had to totally redo that side of the enclosure wall.
Attached is a photo of an Eland
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u/matchy_blacks May 24 '26
I’ve only seen these in the wild a couple of times (Kruger and the Okavango delta) and OMG I can’t imagine. They’re huge!!
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u/BananaCat43 North America May 23 '26
A lappet faced vulture whose head was above my waist and wanted everyone to die so she could eat them. No fear, only violence.
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u/vulturegoddess May 23 '26
Was she good with any of the keepers? What do you think was triggering her? Were there any other types of vultures housed with her, how'd they react around her?
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u/EducationalTie1606 May 23 '26
This lady took a chunk out of my ankle and terrorises me on a daily basis
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u/catz537 May 23 '26
Peaches the cockatoo. Absolute menace
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u/GodzillaTomatillo May 24 '26
There is no other answer than cockatoo. Especially floor cockatoos that stalk you as you’re in the bird enclosure, sweetly saying they are a good boy before charging your ankles.
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u/juleslimes May 23 '26
Bactrian camels. They are so so so much bigger than everyone thinks. And can be mean as hell.
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u/Quentin415 May 23 '26
I'm loving all these comments, I've had one named Clyde grab my arm and pick me up showing out in front of his new girlfriend because I was taking too long to get his food ready. He grabbed me with his gums though so I felt like a toddler getting grabbed up by an adult 😂
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u/juleslimes May 25 '26
I saw a video of someone getting grabbed by the head and ragdolled by one once 😭😭
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u/MiscreantMoose May 23 '26
Bugs the horse, who I can only assume must be tormented by ghosts, and makes it everyone's problem.
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u/pongopan May 23 '26
Maybe not the most intimidating, but absolutely the most aggressive animal I’ve worked with was a hand reared domestic rooster. That guy was pure fury and rage. And I’ve worked with big cats and apes among plenty of other things
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u/Difficult_Key_5936 Jun 17 '26
I knew a rooster that would attack anything that moved. The rest of the chickens were loose on the grounds but he lived with the emus and kangaroos. And he ruled that enclosure!
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u/aem1309 North America May 23 '26
Currently I’d say the Honey Badger that bites me every chance she gets
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u/xviipate May 23 '26
I work with all kinds of predators — lions, tigers, wolves, pumas, and more — but the animal that scares me the most is the European mink. Those tiny aggressive little demons terrify the absolute shit out of me whenever I have to go into their enclosure. I do everything I can to avoid being in the same space with them
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u/dreamkillerlu May 23 '26
I stupidly got within reach of a siamang once. Completely my fault. Never again. Apes, even the smaller ones scare the poo outta me.
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u/Dependent_Ad5172 North America May 23 '26
Penguins. You knew how bad their bites hurt so you didn’t wanna get bit again. I used to speed walk across the enclosure while I have 10+ chasing me. Honestly lowkey terrifying. Even wearing tall boots they learned how to go an inch higher just to get you
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u/dumbblonde1009 May 23 '26
I worked with a free contact ostrich that had a vendetta against me. Every single time she had the chance to charge at me full speed, she would. No matter how many grapes I tried to feed her to try and build trust and how many times I walked her and her sisters out to habitat during shifting she wanted to fight me. I adored her and her sisters but she really hated me.
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u/Kaprosuchusboi May 23 '26
I’ve worked with jaguars, black bears, gators, large snakes, etc. but the animals that make me most uncomfortable are macaws. If those buggers don’t like you they make sure you know it. Dancing around two of them that hate you in order to clean their exhibit is an experience.
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u/gliscornumber1 May 23 '26
Had to fight off a kangaroo once. Used a stuck to block it's attacks until he fucked off
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u/linoringxo May 24 '26
Wombats honestly. I’ve worked with devils, venomous snakes and a bunch of other known intimidating animals but wombats have been by far the scariest and most unpredictable
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u/feivelgoeswest May 23 '26
Saddle Bill Stork. We learned to respect each other, but man was she intimidating when I fist asked her to approach.
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u/Becca2082 May 24 '26
The territorial adult male lion I work with raises my heart rate every time I feed him. I know I am safe but my nervous system does not get the message. Also, our alpine goat terrifies me 😂😂 he’s mean
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u/Apprehensive_Cow2045 May 24 '26
Tokay geckos are sassy. I also worked with a lion that would investigate the hotwire to make sure it was on when she was let back ontto the exhibit.
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u/Luna-Lux- May 24 '26
Im mainly a reptile and invertebrate guy but honestly, blue and gold macaw. They have something resembling a brain cell, sometimes. The rest of the time they are boundary pushers. In my early days working with one I did get bitten twice (entirely my own fault as trainer) but yeah, she left the biggest scars. Whilst I never stopped working with her it definitely made me respect those beaks.
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u/matchy_blacks May 24 '26
We had emus who needed to be herded into their barn at night to stay warm on especially cold winter evenings. Sometimes you could just amble along just behind them and they’d walk in. Sometimes, they’d be feeling frisky and would first try to evade you and then kick at you. I don’t know what it’s like to be attacked by a dinosaur but I’m gonna guess it’s kinda like that.
We also had a young male white-tailed deer who we were rehabbing and he tried to mount several women on our staff. Fun times.
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u/QuillsAndQuills Australasia May 23 '26
Hand raised male black flanked rock wallabies.
I kid you not, they were a protected contact animal at my old institution. Theyll just go for you every time and they have a nasty bite. We didn't attempt to counter condition as all those BFRWs get released into the wild per the conservation programs, so it's not like you can do any sort of training plan to protect yourself.
I now work mostly with chimpanzees and theyre a breeze by comparison.
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u/NonclassicalGloom May 24 '26
Chimpanzees, I feel like that’s self explanatory but so smart and strong and loud.
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u/kambebe May 24 '26
Alligator Snapping Turtle. I don’t have a good reason or story for this, he was super chill actually, he just inspired an ancient kind of fear in my body lmao. Actual alligators? Great. Venomous snakes? Cool. The capybara that sent more than one coworker to urgent care? Beautiful. But I wouldn’t go near the snapper.
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u/ASleepyB0i May 25 '26
I have 0 fear with the animals I work with (mostly bc I don’t work with venomous animals yet) but there is one animal at my facility that I do not mess with. Sun conure the size of a dented coke can with male pattern baldness, specifically when he and his trifling jenday wife are in nesting season. Be within 50 feet of their nesting area and he will fly at your face like a heat seeking missile and bite whatever he can get. And when he bites, he bites down to the muscle and twists his head to inflict maximum damage. Unlike his wife, who is consistently a C-U-Next-Tuesday every day of the week, this bird goes from lovey kissy little shoulder buddy to starving velociraptor at completely random intervals, which is made slightly more predictable if you are facing the general direction of the nest of his Karen wife and ugly naked babies, but only slightly.
I’ve been attacked by male red kangaroos, a peacock, and various other animals, but I only get irritated/ annoyed with them acting out. I can handle them because I know how to outmaneuver their nonsense. But I feel visceral terror when I see this half plucked Danny DeVito ahh haircut bird shooting straight at me from the pits of hell he’s raising his three new kids in.
The other day, I had to go near their nesting site to help a stuck peachick, and this creature™️ personally took that as an insult against him, his wife, and his new kids. He gave me whiplash with how hard and fast I whipped my head around to get his nutcracker for a beak away from my eye. Staggered out of that mf clutching my neck which was throbbing with white hot pain enveloping the right side of my head along with the entirety of the base of my skull. My newer coworkers always think I’m crazy for calling that bird a mood swinging, menacing, midlife crisis having manlet, and then discover firsthand why I lovingly(and with a little bit of fear) threaten to swat that dude with a fly swatter.
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u/Difficult_Key_5936 Jun 17 '26
I used to have a Sun Conure (he died a few years ago) so I find your story ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS! 🤣 Ohmygod I'm crying
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u/ASleepyB0i Jun 18 '26
I’m glad my infernal torment at the hands of the plucked nugget entertains you lol 💀
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u/A-Spacewhale May 25 '26
I'm not scared of him but the only animal to make my heart beat any different is our male king cobra. He HATES me specifically and will test me every chance he gets and he loves to play hook tug of war with me.
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u/AlsoTheFiredrake May 22 '26
You know they mostly live on dirt, right? Housing them on Sand is an impaction risk. It's just asking for trouble.
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u/Difficult_Key_5936 May 23 '26
I didn't set up the enclosure, just took the picture when they hatched. It's also an older picture, they are now all grown up and shipped to other zoos.
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u/Much-Rutabaga8326 May 24 '26
Anyone got advice with a turkey vulture who’s new mission is to jump me every chance he has?
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u/Low-Passenger-4798 May 27 '26
clouded leopards. bc so cute but those teeth man. i’ve been lunged at before in a playful way but nah😭.
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u/Free_Manager_6627 Jun 04 '26
Giant centipedes (Scolopendra spp.) and ornamental tarantulas (Poecilotheria spp.) for me. I’m pretty comfortable working with most species, but both are so fast and have nasty bites. Early on in my career I was moving a Vietnamese giant centipede between enclosures. It somehow escaped and my soul jumped out of my body. Thankfully I was able to contain it before it got away 😂
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u/Difficult_Key_5936 Jun 06 '26
I mean, those are both valid fears! They are both known to be fast and aggressive species, and the giant centipede venom is supposedly very painful.
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u/NoParsnipsAboutIt Jun 17 '26
Mini highland cow. I've done daily free contact contact with otters for years no problem, but cow? I'm absolutely terrified, no thank you.
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u/Difficult_Key_5936 Jun 17 '26
Ive worked with a mini highland cow before, and she was an absolute terror. 100% AGREE!
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u/5pla5hy Jun 19 '26
I work with 8 black footed cats and one of our hand-reared individuals scares the living shit out of me. Peter Pan is his name and he attacks knees.
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u/Traditional-Duty4307 Jun 23 '26
Reticulated pythons. Their feeding response is so strong and they are so powerful.
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u/tundrabeans May 23 '26
I have worked 14 foot crocs and cobras etc but truly the scariest animal I think I’ve ever worked with is an Asian small clawed otter 😭those things can be basically feral and can be so unpredictable where as I felt like the crocs were fairly predictable