Have the bears had enough of being gawked at while in captivity? It would seem like it, given how one grizzly bear at the Minnesota Zoo acted.
When a brown bear repeatedly slammed a rock weighing 50 pounds into a glass wall surrounding its enclosure, zoo-goers were taken by surprise. However, Tony Fisher, Animal Collections director for the zoo, said the glass is custom-made and laminated and it did exactly what it was supposed to: protect everyone else on the other side.
Just one of the five layers of the glass wall broke so people at the zoo were definitely in no danger but that doesn't change the fact that quite a number of them were taken aback. Zoo staff have not singled out which of the three grizzly bears in the enclosure was responsible for the ruckus but they believe it is the middle-sized brown bear Kenai.
The bear arrived at the zoo with two others in 2008 from Alaska. According to the zoo's website, Kenai likes wrestling and is the first to try new things presented to the bears.
Were the bears trying to escape? Fisher said no. They weren't being aggressive either. On the contrary, they were just being playful. But since a brown bear can weigh 800 to 900 pounds, all that heft supports the kind of strength destructive enough to damage safety glass.
"He didn't know what he was doing. He was just being a bear," said Fisher.
One of the visitors to the Minnesota Zoo recounted that he was watching the bears wrestle shortly after the zoo was opened. One of the bears then picked up the 50-pound rock from the bottom of the exhibit's pool and slammed it against the glass wall repeatedly.
Still, the Animal collections director is confident that the enclosure can withstand bears and what they are capable of.
"Everything else in this exhibit is pretty much concrete and steel, pretty indestructible," he added.
While the glass wall is being fixed though, Kenai and his bear friends have been removed from the open-air exhibit. Zoo staff are also planning on anchoring down everything in the enclosure that the bears are capable of lifting.
Photo: Scott Calleja | Flickr
