In September 2012, a 25-year-old New Yorker named David Villalobos suddenly jumped 17 feet from the Bronx Zoo tour monorail into the tiger pen. He broke some bones in the fall but was fortunate that the tiger on duty that day wasn't very fierce. The 400-pound Siberian tiger named Bachuta just bit into his foot and dragged him around awhile until the keepers could rescue him. Zoo employees used fire extinguishers to distract the tiger so they could rescue David.

It turns out that David wasn't upset because he's completely obsessed with tigers. When the police asked him what he was thinking he replied that "everyone in life makes choices" and that he wanted "to be one with the tiger." According to a law enforcement official, Villalobos suffered broken ribs, a broken right ankle, which was also mauled by the tiger, a collapsed lung and a broken pelvis. But he didn't seem to mind. As a matter of fact, he told the police sergeant that he actually got to pet a real tiger.