I was attacked by a jaguar.
In 2010, I volunteered in South Africa at a lion and tiger sanctuary (that also takes care of a few other cats) and hand-raised a few cubs (two tigers and a jaguar). When they're that young, they remember your scent forever. So when I returned to the sanctuary again last year and came across the same jaguar, he recognized me and was rubbing his head/body along the fence like a house cat would rub against your leg with affection. It was a great feeling.
The lions at this sanctuary are very used to being around humans, so when you call for them, they usually come running to the fence and you can even pat their noses or ears through the enclosure fence, and they love it. But you only do that with the teenager cubs/young adult cats-- NEVER the big, big adult ones. I learned the hard way to never assume you can do the same to a jaguar.
Faster than I could process, he suddenly went from affectionately rubbing against the fence to quickly stretching his paw out through the fence and grasping my hand with his huge fucking razor sharp claws, right into the meaty area of my hand above my left pinky, and pulled me into the fence towards him. This went in slow motion for me, so it seemed like there was a pause in everything as I tried to think of how to get away from this fucking animal. I swore we made eye contact in this moment. He thankfully regripped his claws onto my fleece jacket rather than my flesh, and that was the moment I knew I had to act fast, or else I would lose my hand/arm/face/life. So, I put my legs against the fence and pushed against it as hard as I could, and the fleece ripped and I fell backwards onto the ground. My hand wasn't even bleeding, the cut was so deep. I was incredibly, stupidly lucky that I didn't lose function in my hand whatsoever-- and I'm a circus artist/hand balancer and NEED my hands for a lot of things. I was also stupid lucky in the sense that the jaguar hadn't even reached out for my hand in aggression, he was actually playing with me but didn't know his own strength. I'm 100% sure that if he were to have reached his paw out in aggression, I wouldn't be alive. And the worst part wasn't even the pain from my hand, it was the adrenaline that made me shake uncontrollably for hours after it happened. Horrible feeling that was way worse than the injury.
Fun fact: I caught all of this on my GoPro. And no, I won't post it. By far the dumbest thing I have ever done in my life and I'd rather not share that footage with the world haha. Another thing: this sanctuary kept rejected cubs that would die if released back into the wild/I wasn't part of one of those bullshit volunteer programs that doesn't take proper care of their animals. Ain't nobody got time.
TLDR: Don't ignore a sign on a jaguar's enclosure that says STAY 5 METERS AWAY FROM FENCE.