Video has captured the aftermath of the moment a jaguar at a zoo in Arizona attacked a woman who crossed an enclosure's barrier to take a selfie.
The woman suffered what appeared to be a deep laceration to her arm but is otherwise expected to be okay, according to the Wildlife World Zoo.
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"The visitor sustained non-life threatening injuries to their arm from one of our female jaguars.
"At no time was the animal out of its enclosure... please understand why barriers are put in place. Sending prayers to the family tonight,"
The zoo said onlookers witnessed the woman attempting to get a little too close to the jaguar.
"Before closing there was an incident reported involving a guest who crossed over a barrier to get a photo, according to eyewitnesses."
The zoo says the jaguar won't be put down, despite zoo director Mickey Ollson telling azfamily.com that it's not the first time this animal has lashed out at a visitor.
"She had scratched a person once before when they crossed the barrier," said Ollson. But he says the other injury was not as serious.
Another visitor to the zoo at the time, Adam Wilkerson, captured the moments following the attack on video.
Mr Wilkerson told azfamily.com that he and his mother intervened to prevent the woman from suffering any further injury.
"My mom runs up and takes her water bottle and shoves it through the cage near where the jaguar is, and the jaguar goes to let go of the girl to take the water bottle, and the claw just catches this girl's sweater," he said.
"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."
Wilkerson did not see the actual attack and could not comment on how the victim got so close to the animal.
Newshub.
