Border Agents in Texas Can Exhale: Bengal Tiger That Escaped From Mexican Zoo Collared

Tony the Tiger will get a new home after spending nearly a week wondering near the Rio Grande.

AP/Matt York
A tiger similar to the one that escaped from a zoo in Reynosa, Mexico. AP/Matt York

The 220-pound Bengal tiger that escaped a Mexican zoo along the border was finally nabbed after spending nearly a week on the lam.

Tony the Tiger, who somehow busted out of her cage at the Quinta La Fauna zoo along the banks of the Rio Grande at Reynosa last Wednesday — sparking terror she’d cross into Texas — was captured without incident Tuesday.

“The feline was caught without injuries thanks to the joint work of the Environmental Directorate and Protección Civil y Bomberos Reynosa, who set a trap last night,” the mayor of Reynosa, Carlos Peña Ortiz, said in a video posted on Facebook.

Tigers are capable of swimming multiple miles a day, and with the zoo located near a part of the Rio Grande only 50 yards across, residents in neighboring Hidalgo, Texas, were concerned that the massive beast would be wandering through their streets.

Yet it appears that Tony never made it across the river. The tiger was found in a high vegetation area in the Mexican border town of Los Longoria. In a video posted to X by the local newspaper El Manana de Reynosa, the tiger is seen letting out a loud growl after a person from the search party shines a flashlight in her direction. She was caught in one of the many traps that were set up throughout the area.

Tony appeared to have no issues or injuries and will be taken to her new home.

“The tiger is in good health, and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office for Environmental Protection, PROFEPA, has already been notified,” Reynosa city officials said in a post on Facebook. “The animal is expected to be transferred to the Victoria City Zoo, where it will receive the specialized care it needs.”


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