Elephant logs out in zoo jailbreak
( 2004-01-26 09:16) (Agencies)
An elephant briefly escaped
from New Zealand's Auckland Zoo on Friday, after dropping a log on an
electrified fence and crashing through a gate.
Twenty-year-old Burma, one of two elephants at the zoo, was free for about
half an hour, forcing some road closures during the morning commuter rush, but
she posed no threat to bystanders and caused no damage to any other property.
The 2.8-ton Asian elephant, which stands about two-and-a-half metres tall,
was found in a park behind the zoo and keepers walked her back to her enclosure
to join the other elephant.
"When the keepers found her she vocally responded -- it was almost a 'thank
goodness you're here','' said Maria Finnegan, the zoo's director of life
sciences.
"She was a little shaken, and both the girls were clearly happy to be
reunited.''
Burma had neutralized the electrified fence around the elephant enclosure by
dropping a large log onto it, then climbed into a moat and walked along the
perimeter fence before pushing through a gate to enter the neighbouring park,
she said.
"We think it was an opportunistic thing, not a deliberate action, she's
realized the fence was not there and then decided to roam...''
Finnegan said the elephants had recently been allowed to roam their enclosure
during the warm summer nights, but the zoo would now strengthen the fence and
keep the pair indoors overnight under the control of keepers.
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