Jaguar mauls woman who climbed over zoo barrier to take a selfie

A woman was attacked by a jaguar at a zoo in Arizona – after climbing over a fence to take a selfie with it.

The female animal reached out and clawed her hand and only let go when a witness distracted her with a water bottle.

Paramedics were called to the scene and the woman was taken to hospital with non-threatening injuries.

Witness Adam Wilkerson, who was at the Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium and Safari Park in Litchfield Park, Arizona, with his mother and two kids, said the incident caused ‘pandemonium’.

‘I hear a young girl screaming for help. I rush over and see this girl with her hand up against the Jaguar enclosure fence with a black Jaguar’s claws in its grasp,’ he wrote on Reddit.

He added: ‘If it weren’t for my mom’s quick thinking with the water bottle that Jaguar would not have let go of the poor girls arm. We’re still in shock from it all.’

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Wildlife World Zoo Director Mickey Ollson confirmed that the five-year-old jaguar would not be euthanized as it was not her fault.

He said that the zoo would ‘never harm an animal based on human behaviour’.

‘Every time that you have an incident in a zoo, you’re going to double check it and meet with your staff try to figure out a way to stop that incident from happening again,’ he said.

‘But when people do not respect the barriers, there’s always a chance there might be a problem.’

Wildlife World Zoo later issued a statement on Twitter that read: ‘We regret to inform that this evening, before closing there was an incident reported involving a guest, who crossed over the barrier to get a photo, according to eye witnesses.

‘The visitor sustained non-life threatening injuries to their arm from one of our female jaguars.

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‘At the request of the family, paramedics were called. At no time was the animal out of its enclosure. The incident is being fully investigated.’

They later added: ‘We can promise you nothing will happen to our jaguar.

‘She’s a wild animal and there were proper barriers in place to keep our guests safe- not a wild animals fault when barriers are crossed. Still sending prayers to her and her family.’