From The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/feature/)
American Humane Association monitor Gina Johnson confided in an email
to a colleague on April 7, 2011, about the star tiger in Ang Lee’s Life of Pi.
While many scenes featuring “Richard Parker,” the Bengal tiger who shares
a lifeboat with a boy lost at sea, were created using CGI technology,
King, very much a real animal, was employed when the digital version
wouldn’t suffice. “This one take with him just went really bad and he got
lost trying to swim to the side,” Johnson wrote. “Damn near drowned.”

King’s trainer eventually snagged him with a catch rope and dragged him
to one side of the tank, where he scrambled out to safety.

“I think this goes without saying but DON’T MENTION IT TO ANYONE,
ESPECIALLY THE OFFICE!” Johnson continued in the email, obtained by
The Hollywood Reporter. “I have downplayed the f— out of it.”