The Alaska Zoo temporarily gained an extra animal Wednesday when a wild black bear strayed onto the zoo’s property and temporarily kept it from opening to the public.
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The Alaska Zoo reopened to visitors at around 1:15 p.m. Wednesday after the uninvited black bear made its way safely out of the park.
So Lampi delayed the zoo’s opening so the bear, which he estimates was about 3 years old and “recently pushed away by its mother”, could come down from the tree in its own time.
The young black bear let itself into the zoo.
Myer said he hopes the latest visitor walks on the wild side and doesn’t come back.
All of the animals, including the tigers and wolves, had to be moved into their dens.
“The tigers were very excited about the new resident”, Jill Myer said, according to the Alaska Dispatch News. And the wolves were very curious.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game spokesman Ken Marsh said Anchorage-area biologist Dave Battle was at the zoo helping respond to the incident, as of 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. “We had staff, in teams, come from different directions, leaving it an open trail to a back gate where we had a person stationed in a truck so they could close the gate”. We brought her to Bird TLC and everything, but it was clear she had spent a long time in captivity.
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“Hopefully it learned a lesson on avoiding people”, Lampi said.
