The 22-month old animal had been flown from Moscow Zoo to Frankfurt, Germany, earlier in the week, and was finishing the journey by road.
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Nissan was travelling past the “Jungle” encampment when the migrants prised open the back door of the vehicle.
A group of migrants looking for a future in the United Kingdom got a surprise when they jumped into a lorry already occupied by a polar bear.
Nissan, who has come from Moscow Zoo, is safely settling in at the Wildlife Park in Branton today.
“His transfer was nearly a year in planning with strict welfare regulations in force throughout the trip, although no one could have planned for the moment his truck was briefly entered by a group of migrants at Calais before the Gendarmes restored order”, Simon Marsh, animal manager at the park, said in a statement emailed to Mashable.
‘It’s not probably what they were expecting when they opened the back of the lorry.
“There was a slight hiccup at Calais”, he said.
‘It’s obviously not ideal when people get in to the back of a lorry with a polar bear’.
Nissan, who fortunately was in his cage at the time, was himself on the final leg of a journey from Eastern Europe to what is hoped will be a better life at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster.
Nissan became the third polar bear at Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
The bears will be introduced over the next few weeks in the purpose-built 10-acre Project Polar reserve created to replicate their Arctic habitat.
The Yorkshire Wildlife Park plays a critical role in this by holding retired males like Victor or young males like Pixel and now Nissan, who are not currently needed in the breeding programme.
Witness Simon Bridger told The Sun: ‘It only took 17 seconds before four vaulted the barrier and prised open the truck’s back doors.
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The refugees were making a desperate bid to reach the United Kingdom when they crept into a stationary truck in Calais at 4am.
