JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Catch a tiger by the toe?
Florida is home to many alligators, bears and manatees, but a tiger seems outlandish.
A viral Facebook post stating that a tiger was spotted on Moncrief Road in Jacksonville, has amassed over 800 reactions, over 450 comments, and has been shared 915 times and counting. While some users have made jokes in the comments section of the post, thinking the sighting is fictional, others have offered suggestions as to how they would capture the wild animal, believing that it is on the loose.
THE QUESTION
Was there a tiger spotted on Moncrief Road in Jacksonville?
THE SOURCES
- Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens
- Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary
- Edward Waters University
- Google Lens
THE ANSWER
No, a tiger was not spotted on Moncrief Road in Jacksonville as viral Facebook post claims.
WHAT WE FOUND
First Coast News reached out to Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens and the Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary to check if there was an incident where a tiger escaped from either the zoo or sanctuary.
Curtis Dvorak, a Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens spokesperson, said the tiger is "not the zoo's." Catty Shack Media Coordinator Tracy Collins told First Coast News the tiger is not part of the sanctuary either.
"Tigers are actually just as independent as humans, in terms of their stripes," Collins said.
Collins went on to say that if the tiger is someone's pet, it could be easily identified by that characteristic since their stripes are patterned differently from one another.
And although Edward Waters University's official mascot is a tiger, the admissions office at the university said the university does not have a real tiger as its mascot.
Using the Google Lens tool, the pictures of the tiger in the post indicates that the images were actually taken near the Texas-Mexico border in 2019. Several other news outlets across the country have reported that these same images have been shared in a similar way in different cities over the past five years.
Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook said on her Facebook page that the tiger in the post has "made its' way across America these past few days."