ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A man has been banned from the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque forever after he stuck his finger into the jaguar's cage and the big cat bit it off.

Zoo employees pieced together what happened, only after making the grim discovery -- which was the finger.

On Tuesday morning, zoo worker Lyn Ewell noticed a man running with his hand in his pocket, his pants bearing a dark stain.

Ewell knew something was wrong, and followed him.

The man had been coming to the zoo nearly every day for two years.

Since he's a member, his phone number was on file. When they called him, he told staff he had all 10 fingers, but the zoo discovered that was a lie.

"The finger was lying here, upside down," said zoo director Ray Darnell.

The Albuquerque Police Department matched the fingerprint to the man, went to his house and confirmed he indeed only had nine digits.

"They're not your friends, they're not your pets," Darnell said. "They're wild animals."

Darnell said the man probably walked up to the cage when no one was looking.

Darnell said this has never happened before, and said the fence, landscaping, and cage meet standards.

"You can you always do more, sure," he said. "This could be electrified but that couldn't be too much fun."

The zoo said the barriers protect the animals from the people, but not the people from themselves.

The zoo will not press charges, saying the man has been through enough.