Young Black Bear Breaks into CA Zoo

Summary:

EUREKA, CA – While doing the morning pre-opening rounds at Sequoia Park Zoo, an employee saw a wild black bear near the bear enclosure. Zoo officials reported that while the bear didn’t get into the habitat with his captive counterparts, he was playing with their toys and interacting with them through their enclosure fencing. The three bears in question were Kunabulih, Tule and Ishung, according to an Instagram post from the zoo.

“He was really, really interested in our three bears, and he introduced himself to all of them through the fence,” Jim Campbell-Spickler, the zoo’s director, told SFGate. “The interaction between them was really sweet, calm, and curious. We think he was just looking for a friend, though maybe that’s anthropomorphizing, of course.”

The facility called the Eureka Police Department and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to assist after enacting its emergency protocols. Neither the bear nor the zoo’s resident bears were injured. The curious mammal was “safely coaxed back into the woods through a service gate.” The zoo’s perimeter fencing is still intact, with no evidence of a breach. Zoo and wildlife officials are still scratching their heads as to how the bear accomplished this feat.

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