Comment Animal lovers who signed up for a special overnight stay at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo ended up with a closer encounter than they bargained for after five African lions escaped. After watching the sun set over historic Sydney Harbour, guests attending Taronga Zoo’s ‘Roar and Snore’ experience lay down in their safari-style tents, lulled to sleep by the sounds of the surrounding animals. However, shortly after dawn on Wednesday, they were woken up urgently by zoo staff, who dragged them away. “They ran into the tent area saying, ‘This is a Code One, get out of your tent and run, come now and leave your belongings behind,’” one visitor, Magnus Perri, told local media as he left and his family. the zoo. “… They opened the door [to a building]they all went in, counted us and locked the door.” At first, guests thought it was a drill, but soon realized something more serious was wrong, Perri explained. “We realized, ‘OK, there’s something out there—what is it?’ And they said, “Oh, it’s the lions.” So we were like, “Oh, scary!” “ The video shows Ato, an adult male, and four of his 1-year-old cubs escaping into an area adjacent to the main exhibit. While they had breached one fence, they remained separated from the rest of the zoo by a second fence which the zoo described as a “human containment fence” and a “security barrier”. This fence is six feet high – although some lions have been known to jump over 11 feet. Fortunately for zoo staff and visitors, four of the five lions “calmly” returned to their dens, while the remaining lion was safely tranquilized and returned to the den, Taronga Zoo said in a statement. “We have since reviewed the video and confirmed that it was less than 10 minutes between the lions exiting the main exhibit and the emergency response being put in place,” the zoo said, adding that it regularly conducts safety drills to prepare for such scenarios. . An initial investigation found “an integrity issue” with a containment fence was to blame and the animals were moved to a secure holding area pending a full review. Police were also called to the zoo, with Commissioner Karen Webb telling local media: “It’s not very often that we get called by lions on the loose.” No injuries were reported and the zoo was able to open as usual on Wednesday. It’s not the first time an animal has escaped at Toronga Zoo: In January 2021, a chimpanzee was seen briefly sitting outside its enclosure before — like most lions — it decided to return on its own.
