Near-Escapes Plague SF Zoo

Polar bear, snow leopard nearly got out since fatal mauling
By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 12, 2008 10:11 AM CST
Near-Escapes Plague SF Zoo
Police Chief Heather Fong, right, and San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo leave a press conference Dec. 28, 2007, in San Francisco. The Christmas Day Tiger attack has focused attention on Mollinedo and the zoo's apparent strategy of blaming the victims for the escape that left a teenager dead...   (Associated Press)

Two animals have nearly escaped from enclosures at the San Francisco Zoo since a fatal mauling Dec. 25, the Chronicle reports. A 600-pound polar bear—whose movements are so unpredictable it's kept away from the zoo's other polar bears—tried to scale an enclosure wall Jan. 3; a 100-pound snow leopard got a paw and part of its head out of a mesh cage yesterday.

Two zoo employees told the Chronicle they feared for their own safety and that of visitors following the new incidents. A teenager was killed Christmas Day when a Siberian tiger leapt from its enclosure; two companions were injured before police shot the animal to death. The zoo was closed at the time of the polar bear incident, open during the snow leopard's attempt. (More San Francisco Zoo stories.)

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