When Marguerite Dixen joked with an underwriter and told him to go find out how someone could “lose a hand” at a metal-stamping plant, she wasn't expecting his report.

“The owner kept tigers at his place of business, and two employees were responsible for feeding them,” recalled Ms. Dixen, president of Third Coast Underwriters in Chicago.

“That isn't something that is normally contemplated in the WC [workers' compensation] code,” she deadpanned. “There's no tiger exclusion.”

For Ms. Dixen, who specializes in traditionally hard-to-insure workers' comp risks, and others like her who crave the unusual, a couple of hungry tigers are all in a day's work.

Take, for instance, Lloyd's insurer Aegis London, which provides property and liability insurance to zoos.

“We make a point of maintaining dialogue with zoo owners and zoo associations to better understand their business,” explained underwriter Peter Lodge.

Monkeys, for example, can be dangerous around curious children, so they are usually kept at a safe distance, Mr. Lodge added in a Lloyd's article online.

But the most dangerous animal is the mammoth elephant “for the simple reason that they can cause a great deal of property damage and are also capable of crushing people,” Mr. Lodge so succinctly explained.

In staying with the animal theme that has dominated NU's annual unusual risk reports over the years, Ms. Dixen said she once insured a company that collected semen from bulls. This is a business issue, as the vast majority of dairy cattle are produced in this way, via artificial insemination.

“It is a pretty interesting agricultural risk,” Ms. Dixen noted. “Sending loss control out to that one was an experience.”

The Weatherby-Eisenrich Insurance Agency, headquartered in Andrews, Texas, also knows quite a bit about loss control as it provides workers' comp, general liability, pollution and commercial auto coverage to one of the nation's only low-level radioactive disposal sites. Though relatively safe thanks to aggressive risk management, it remains a hazardous work environment, according to the agency's president, Lloyd Eisenrich.

“There are certain procedures, like breaking down waste in the blending facility before it heads to the landfill–it's a highly complicated risk, but we're comfortable with it,” said Mr. Eisenrich, who is also president of Austin, Texas-based Combined Agents of America. “But it's something you don't go quote online.”

Unusual risks are not reserved for the commercial insurance sector. State Farm's Chauncey Nickson, a replacement service buyer, said the home insurer has provided coverage for two sarcophaguses, a toilet seat painted by Jackson Pollock, original Monopoly boards and a human brain passed down from father to father for three generations in a family of doctors.

“You can't replace a human brain,” Mr. Nickson said. “It's illegal.”

One wholesaler is coming to grips with a brand-new market--medical marijuana facilities. The future always holds some interesting risk opportunities, simply because society experiments with better ways to do things–such as creating energy. Indeed, one of the focuses of Third Coast Underwriters is production of “green”–that is, environmentally friendly–energy.

“There is not an automatic appetite for this because it is so new, but we like to unravel the mysteries of new exposures,” according to Ms. Dixen.

Melanie Elias, director of claims for Burns & Wilcox, noted that the wholesaler has started to write medical marijuana facilities.

“It is unusual because of the value of the stock,” she said. “We'd always like to salvage or replace, because this in particular isn't something you can send across state lines.”

Whatever the risk, there will likely be an insurer somewhere not only willing to write less-than-routine exposures but who specializes in the unusual.

“We don't run a 'just say no' operation,” Ms. Dixen explained. “We look to understand a client's business.”

Ms. Dixen noted she is currently quoting insurance for an auto wrecking company that is the subject of a reality television show. Risks include the predictable–exposure to weather, traffic, etc.–to the not so usual, such as getting in a fight with a guy who is not very happy about seeing his car being repossessed.

“This one is going to be fun,” Ms. Dixen said.

Lloyd's of London, known for insuring the body parts of celebrities and athletes, has insured the Samoan locks of Troy Polamalu of the National Football League's Pittsburgh Steelers for $1 million. It is the first such policy of its kind and protects Mr. Polamalu's hair for the entire NFL season.

Mr. Polamalu stars in several commercials for Head & Shoulders shampoo, which took out the policy with Lloyd's, according to a press release.

“In developing this unique policy, we recognize that Troy Polamalu's famed head of hair is truly legendary and we are proud to partner with Head & Shoulders to protect it,” said Jonathan Watkins of Lloyd's Watkins syndicate.

Other than his All-Pro play on the gridiron as a safety, Mr. Polamalu is recognized easily by his long hair, which hangs beyond his football helmet to cover his name on the back of his jersey.

The footballer has not cut his hair in seven years. End-to-end it spans 100 football fields, the press release claims.

Lloyd's is no stranger to insuring body parts. For example, it has insured singer Tina Turner's legs, the ankles of pro baseball's Mark McGwire, and the crotch of Adam Lambert of American Idol fame.

It is not known what must be done to Polamalu's hair to trigger the insurance policy. It is legal to pull hair to tackle a player in football. In fact, that happened to Mr. Polamalu in 2006, when he was dragged down by his hair after making an interception. There is also no rule about the length a player's hair can be.

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