Woman in Pursuit of Selfie Attacked by Jaguar in Arizona

Incident happened Saturday at Wildlife World Zoo
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 10, 2019 7:10 AM CDT
Woman in Pursuit of Selfie Attacked by Jaguar in Arizona
A jaguar is seen in this stock photo.   (Getty Images)

"Please understand why barriers are put in place. Sending prayers to the family tonight." So reads a Saturday night tweet from Arizona's Wildlife World Zoo in the wake of an incident involving a guest and a jaguar. The Litchfield Park zoo says that same evening a female guest crossed a barrier in an attempt to take a photo of a jaguar and was attacked, sustaining non-life threatening injuries on one arm. The animal was in its enclosure the entire time, the zoo pointed out. Local officials clarified it wasn't just a photo, but a selfie: The woman was "attempting to take a selfie near the fence of the jaguar enclosure when the cat reached out and attacked her arm."

A witness tells KPHO that after hearing the 30-something woman's screams, he and his family ran over and distracted the animal with a water bottle. "And the jaguar goes to let go of the girl to take the water bottle, and the claw just catches this girl's sweater. So at that point I see that it's no longer attached to the girl's actual arm, only on her sweater, so I grab the girl on her torso and I pull her back." Paramedics were called. (Read more animal attack stories.)

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