The four-acre zoo, which sits on a mountain inside a Roanoke city park, had never had an escape from its grounds in its 55 years until Sunday, Jobe said. At some point while the monkeys were being shifted, either a zoo employee made a mistake or a piece of equipment malfunctioned, Jobe said.

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Wednesday, June 28, 2006 · Last updated 6:30 a.m. PT

Grizzly bear sought after double escape from Canadian resort

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

GOLDEN, British Columbia -- A freedom-loving grizzly bear named Boo smashed a heavy steel door and barreled through two electric fences to escape a second time from a resort near this southcentral British Columbia town.

Boo was recaptured Friday, two weeks after breaking out of an artificial den at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, but escaped from tighter confinement within a day, resort spokesman Michael Dalzell said Tuesday.

"It's unbelievable," Dalzell said. "We thought there was no way, it was absolutely impossible, but he found a way. It was basically like breaking out of Fort Knox."

He said the bear bashed a nearly 400-pound steel door off its four bolts, destroyed an electrical box while tearing through two electric fences and scrambled over a 12-foot fence anchored with two feet of steel below ground.

"I think he just kept charging it (the door) and charging it until it broke off its bolts," Dalzell said. "Everything was completely trashed. We are dealing with a pretty smart and determined bear."

The search team that caught Boo on Friday went back to work Sunday morning but saw no sign of the grizzly after logging more than 50 hours in a helicopter.


Resort staff had planned to neuter Boo, but he got away first. Once he's located, authorities will decide whether to try to recapture him again, Dalzell said.

"Right now we are in the process of looking for him . . . we are not out to try to trap or tranquilize him," he said. "We are looking at all options. Obviously, we need to just really look at our program and figure this one out."

The bear has lived inside a 22-acre enclosure since his mother was illegally shot by a hunter in 2002. It's unclear if he could fend for himself and, being used to humans, would likely be a problem in the wild, experts said.

Boo is now in a "lose-lose situation," said Tracey Henderson of the Grizzly Bear Alliance in Canmore, Alberta.

"The poor guy has now tasted freedom and he is going to be more motivated to keep getting out," she said. "There is a side of me that's saying, `Way to go Boo,' but there is another side of me that's really worried about this bear being in the wild near humans."

Boo's first escape was blamed on hormones, June being the prime mating season for grizzlies, but Henderson said the second escape might indicate the bear no longer would tolerate confinement.

"It's just a sad situation," she said. "He is clearly a bear that wants to be free, yet we've created a situation where it's not really safe for him to be free."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/monkey_escape;_...DJlYmhvBHNlYwM-





Monkey on the run in Virginia

Mon Jul 3, 9:53 AM ET

ROANOKE, Va. - A Japanese monkey aptly named Oops bolted from the Roanoke city zoo, sparking a park-wide shutdown as staff searched the surrounding forest where they could hear her in the trees.
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The 20-pound Japanese macaque and her family were being moved from their holding cells to the exhibit for routine feeding and cleaning when she got away Sunday morning, said David Jobe, education curator at Mill Mountain Zoo. She was still on the run Monday morning.

"We hope that because they're active in the daytime, she slept last night and woke up this morning hungry," Jobe said. "We hope to take advantage of a hungry monkey."

At 11, Oops is the youngest of four so-called snow monkeys at the zoo. The furry, light brown monkey with the red face got her name because the others were not supposed to reproduce.

Jobe said he believes she is staying in the forest so she can be in earshot of her family. It's her first trip out of the zoo, and while the staff hadn't seen her since Sunday morning, they heard her throughout the day Sunday as they searched in the forest that surrounds the zoo, he said.

"Part of our concern for her is that it's the first time she's ever been anywhere else and we're sure she's frightened," Jobe said.

The four-acre zoo, which sits on a mountain inside a Roanoke city park, had never had an escape from its grounds in its 55 years until Sunday, Jobe said. At some point while the monkeys were being shifted, either a zoo employee made a mistake or a piece of equipment malfunctioned, Jobe said.

Both the zoo and park were closed on of the busiest weekends of the year for the search. About 75,000 people usually visit the zoo each year.

"Hopefully it will work to our advantage that she escaped alone," Jobe said, adding that if she were with another monkey they would be more apt to explore.

He urged anyone who spots the macaque to call 911 and not try to capture her because she could be dangerous if she feels threatened. Japanese macaques, native to Japan, are typically 2 to 4 feet long and have relatively short tails.

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"We hope to take advantage of a hungry monkey."

:laugh:

well col, you may end up with a monkey swinging on your front porch! i dont know if they caught the little guy yet.

mooseman, i read that one too, about the grizzly escaping twice. scary! i wouldnt want to be within miles and miles of a pissed off grizzly bear

desertyeti; :icon_really_happy_guy:

gael

wonder how he's recovering from his 'shaving accident'

too funny