10 Famous People Who Tragically Lost Their Lives At A Young Age In An Animal Attack

On September 20th, the tragic news emerged that an associate of Tiger King was fatally mauled by a tiger during a performance in Oklahoma. 

Image credits: Growler Pines Tiger Preserve

Image credits: Growler Pines Tiger Preserve

Attempts to tame wild animals have had a grim history, with even experienced individuals falling victim. Below is a list of well-known wildlife handlers and other notable figures who had fatal encounters with wild animals.

#1 Dawn Brancheau

Image source: Ed Schipul/Flickr

Dawn, an animal trainer, was SeaWorld’s poster girl and had worked with orcas at the theme park for 15 years before her life was tragically cut short.

In 2010, while performing a show with Tilikum, the largest orca at SeaWorld Orlando, the animal suddenly pulled her into the water and drowned her.

Employees reportedly tried to distract the massive animal by using nets and throwing food, but after 45 minutes, Tilikum released Dawn’s lifeless body.

The autopsy revealed that the animal trainer lost her life from drowning and blunt force trauma, including fractures to her jawbone, ribs, and a cervical vertebra. She was 40 years old.

Afterward, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined SeaWorld $75,000 for three safety violations, one directly related to Dawn’s tragedy. OSHA asserted that the company “willfully” endangered its employees and showed “plain indifference to, or intentional disregard for, employee safety and health.” SeaWorld issued a statement calling OSHA’s findings “unfounded.”

#2 Steve Irwin

Image source: Bindi Irwin/Facebook

On September 4, 2006, the famous wildlife conservationist was fatally attacked by a stingray while filming the documentary Ocean’s Deadliest in the Great Barrier Reef.

Steve had been snorkeling in shallow waters when the massive sea creature suddenly attacked him, striking him repeatedly with its barb.

According to cameraman Justin Lyons, the stingray made “hundreds of strikes in a few seconds,” puncturing Steve’s heart and lungs.

After the attack, Justin and the crew pulled the 44-year-old Crocodile Hunter into an inflatable boat and performed CPR for over an hour, but he had already succumbed to his injuries.

His wife, Terri, and their two children, Bindi and Robert, have carried on his legacy in wildlife conservation. Twice a year, they host the Steve Irwin Gala, a fundraising event supporting the family’s charity and conservation efforts. They also run the Australia Zoo in Queensland, originally opened by Steve’s parents in 1970.

#3 Jacques “Jacky” Boxberger

Image source: AVENTURIER/Gamma-Rapho

Jacques was a French track and field athlete who represented his country four times at the Summer Olympics between the 1960s and the 1980s.

He also won the Paris Marathon twice and the 1,500 m title at the 1972 European Athletics Indoor Championships.

In 2001, he lost his life during a safari with his family in Kenya when he was 52. While trying to film an elephant, the animal picked him up with its trunk, threw him against a tree, and trampled him.

Ophélie Claude-Boxberger, the middle-distance runner, is his daughter. The 36-year-old has competed internationally for France twice before becoming the champion of France Indoors in the 1,500 m and the outdoors champion in the 3,000 m steeplechase.

#4 Timothy “Grizzly Man” Treadwell

Image source: JoBloMovie Clips/YouTube

Timothy, an environmentalist and founder of the bear-protection organization Grizzly People, and his girlfriend, physician assistant Amie Huguenard, were fatally attacked by a bear in 2003 at Katmai National Park, Alaska.

According to Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Larry Van Daele, Timothy set up his bear-viewing camp “in such a way that bears wishing to traverse the area would have had to either wade in the lake or walk right next to the tent. A person could not have designed a more dangerous location to set up a camp.”

In videos found at the scene, Treadwell reportedly described his campsite as “a potentially dangerous location,” but expressed his confidence that the bears would not harm him.

The 46-year-old Californian had spent 13 summers along the Katmai Coast and would sing and read to the grizzlies. He also gave them names like Thumper, Mr. Chocolate, and Squiggle, as per Reader’s Digest.

Timothy’s work and his demise were the subject of Werner Herzog’s critically acclaimed documentary Grizzly Man.

#5 Taylor Mitchell

Image source: James Dean Photography

The Canadian country folk singer had released her debut album For Your Consideration months before her tragic passing.

Before one of her concerts, Taylor, an environmentalist who enjoyed nature walks, visited Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia.

After hearing her screams in the distance, a group of hikers began searching for her. The first found her belongings and torn clothing before discovering the teenager lying among trees, with a coyote standing over her.

Taylor had been bitten over most of her body, suffering serious wounds to her leg and head. Paramedics rushed her to Sacred Heart Community Health Centre, and she was later airlifted to Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, where she succumbed to her injuries at the age of 19.

Mitchell’s mother founded the Taylor Mitchell Legacy Trust to support music and creative programs while promoting habitat preservation, safe human-wildlife interaction, and environmental education.

#6 Carl Hagenbeck

Image source: Klaus Niermann/ullstein bild

Carl was a merchant of wild animals who supplied many European zoos during the 19th century. He also displayed members of the so-called “savage tribes” in Völkerschauen, known nowadays as the unethical and racist “ethnic shows” or “human zoos.”

The Hamburg-born animal dealer founded Germany’s most successful privately owned zoo, the Tierpark Hagenbeck, in 1863.

In 1913, Carl lost his life, aged 68, from a snakebite, believed to have been caused by the highly venomous boomslang.

Afterward, his sons Heinrich and Lorenz continued the zoo and circus business. The Hamburg zoo still bears his name.

#7 Cleopatra

Image source: Frederick Arthur Bridgman/Wikimedia Commons

Cleopatra, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, lost her life in 30 BC in Alexandria when she was 39 years old.

According to popular belief, the Queen of Egypt ended her life by allowing a venomous cobra to bite her.

However, modern scholars have cast doubt on the validity of ancient reports involving snakebites, hypothesizing that her Roman political rival Augustus forced her to take her own life in a manner of her choosing. Some believe the Egyptian ruler used a toxic ointment or introduced the poison with a hairpin.

The location of her tomb is unknown. It was recorded that Roman ruler Octavian allowed for her and her husband, the Roman politician and general Mark Antony, who stabbed himself with a sword, to be buried together.

#8 Jean Batten

Image source: Fairfax Media via Getty Images

In November 1935, Jean, considered New Zealand’s greatest aviator, became the first woman to fly herself across the South Atlantic.

The following year, she made the first-ever solo flight from England to New Zealand.

Despite her daring feats and record-breaking flights, it was a dog bite that ultimately led to Jean’s passing in 1982.

The 73-year-old aviator reportedly refused treatment after the injury and lost her life from a pulmonary abscess, a localized collection of pus in the lung that forms when lung tissue becomes infected.

Her passing in a hotel in Mallorca became public in 1987 as part of journalist Ian Mackersey’s research for a television documentary on her life.

#9 Bill Pickett

Image source: National Cowboy Museum/Tad S. Mizwa Collection, Dickinson Research Center

Cowboy Bill Pickett founded the Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders with his four brothers. At rodeos, he became famous for his signature move: grabbing a steer by the horns, twisting its head up, and then biting its nose or lower lip, according to the National Cowboy Museum.

Bill competed in his first rodeo in 1888. Considered to be the first African American cowboy movie star, the Texas native appeared in several films during the 1920s, including Crimson Skull and The Bull-Dogger.

In 1932, his life was tragically cut short while he was working with horses at his ranch. According to The Ponca City News, Bill had roped a horse, tied the rope to his saddle horn, and dismounted. The 61-year-old became tangled in the rope and was thrown to the ground by the untamed animal.

Decades later, in 1972, Bill was honored as the first African American cowboy to be inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame.

#10 King Alexander Of Greece

Image source: Royal Collection Trust

Alexander ruled Greece for only three years, from 1917 to 1920.

In 1919, he married commoner Aspasia Manos, sparking a scandal that forced the couple to leave the country for months. Shortly after returning, Alexander was bitten by a domestic Barbary macaque and lost his life to sepsis.

At the time of the attack, the king had been trying to separate another monkey belonging to the steward of the palace’s grapevines from a German shepherd.

His wounds on his legs and torso were cleaned but not cauterized, leading to an infection. Alexander lost his life about 20 days after the incident at the age of 27.

He was succeeded by his father, Constantine I.