Emergent Index of Escaped Animals
Note: This index is in progress, and current links include the most readily accessible information.
Name: Ken (b. 1971 - in captivity)
Genus: Bornean orangutan
Context: “As an adolescent, he would regularly unscrew the bolts of his cage and explore his nursery at night, returning in the morning and putting it back together before his keepers arrived.” (Source: Newsweek, 2016)
He earned the title “The Hairy Houdini”
Initial Escape Year: 1985; 9 documented escapes
Escaped From: San Diego Zoo
Status: Repeatedly recaptured until he was diagnosed with B-Cell lymphoma in 2000. On December 1, 2000, he was euthanized and cremated.
More Info: “On June 13, 1985, a 250-pound orangutan named Ken Allen climbed up his retaining wall at the San Diego Zoo and escaped his exhibit. He walked down a public path toward crowds of weekday tourists, stopping to look at the other animals as if he were a visitor before being led back to his cage.
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The escapes continued. That August, Ken Allen found a crowbar in his pen that workers had left behind. He tossed it to another orangutan, Vicki, who used it to pry open a window and let Ken out.
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Once the orangutan learned not to try anything around uniformed zoo employees, they went undercover, disguising themselves as tourists—what one headline dubbed "gorilla tactics."
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Two years later, he escaped again. This time, his enclosure's water pump clogged, causing the moat to dry up. Before anyone noticed, according to a Los Angeles Times article, he ‘walked across the dry moat and hoisted himself onto rocks outside the enclosure.’”
(Source: Newsweek, 2016)
Name: Tyke (b. 1973 - captured)
Genus: Female African bush elephant from Mozambique
Context: Born in the 1970s in Mozambique, Tyke a very young Tyke was taken from her family and brought to the United States. There, her owner, John Cuneo Jr., and his company, Hawthorn Corporation, trained her and rented her out to circuses. At the time of her death, she was performing with Circus International of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Initial Escape Year: 1993; 3 documented escapes
Escaped From: Blaisdell Center arena in Honolulu, Hawaii
Status: On August 20, 1994, during her escape in Honolulu, policemen fired over 80 shots at Tyke, ending her life. Tyke died of massive nerve damage and brain hemorrhaging.
More Info: “During the performance at the Neal Blaisdell Center, she killed her trainer, Allen Campbell, and seriously injured her groomer, Dallas Beckwith. She also panicked the crowd, which caused several more injuries.
Tyke escaped into the streets of downtown Honolulu during the afternoon rush.
Police fired 87 bullets into Tyke over the next hour as she charged after pedestrians and smashed vehicles throughout several blocks.
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According to Tyrone Taylor, Tyke’s trainer at the time, who was interviewed in the documentary film ‘Tyke the Elephant Outlaw,’ Tyke had been involved in three incidents before the attack in August of 1994.
Prior to the attack, she had escaped from performances in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Canada, resulting in significant damage and injuries.
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Her trainer, Campbell, was described as a “punishment-type” trainer with several complaints of abuse filed against him. He was said to work the elephants hard. An autopsy found that he had cocaine and alcohol in his system.”
(Source: Hawaii News Now, 2024)