The animals – one adult male and four cubs – were spotted outside their exhibit at 6.30am. local time on Wednesday. The zoo said the emergency response was instituted less than 10 minutes after the lions escaped. Although the lions were still in an area separated from the rest of the compound by a 6-foot fence, visitors staying at the zoo as part of the overnight “Roar and Snore” program were brought to safety. “They ran into the tent area saying, ‘This is a code, get out of your tent and run, come now and leave your belongings,’” Magnus Perry, one of the guests, told local media. Zookeepers calmed down and returned one cub, while the remaining four returned of their own volition around 9am. No people or animals were injured and the site reopened as normal. The zoo does not know how the animals escaped and an investigation has been launched. Image: Staff inspect a lion enclosure at the zoo after five lions escaped from their exhibit on Wednesday “The zoo has very strict safety protocols for such an incident and immediate action was taken,” the attraction’s executive director Simon Duffy said at a press conference. He said the lion enclosure had two fences and the animals had breached one of them. In a statement on social media, the zoo said everyone at the scene during the incident was taken to “safe zones”. He added: “All the animals are now in their exhibit where they are being closely monitored.” The lion section of the zoo is home to Ato and Maya and their five cubs – Khari and Luzuko who are males and Malika, Zuri and Ayanna who are females. Maya and Ayanna stayed in the enclosure while the others went outside.
