At about 1 p.m. on Feb. 23, Ben the bear was sighted outside his enclosure by visitors, who called it in to staff.
Zoogoers were told to shelter in place and some were taken inside as keepers set about reclaiming Ben, tranquilizing him before returning him to his area.
St. Louis Zoo staff stated that Ben is a very precocious 4-year-old Andean bear, also called a speckled bear, and some adventuring is to be expected.
Earlier that month, on Feb. 4, Ben began prying at the one part of his pen fencing most vulnerable to breaching, causing a cable to give way and allowing him to work his way out.
After he was safely returned, zoo keepers beefed up the enclosure by adding stainless steel cargo clips rated at 450 pounds tensile strength but that wasn’t enough.
Adventurous young Ben, who was born at the Queens Zoo and transferred to St. Louis Zoo in July 2021, managed to rip open some of the clips and escape for the second time.
Zoo visitor Drew Wilson saw the speckled bear moseying around the visitors’ area and called him in.
Director of St. Louis Zoo Michael Macek explained Ben’s breach of protocol.
“The habitat we’ve had since 2016 and we’ve never had a bear escape from there until we got Ben,” he told the station. “He’s just very curious. … We added the clips about every eight inches but he still managed to tear some of them apart.”
Going forward, St. Louis Zoo will work with the Association of Zoos; Aquariums Bear Taxon Advisory Group to bulk up the space’s security.
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