The real zoo escapees that mimic the cartoon characters in Madagascar

RIGHT: A Bactrian camel wandering through traffic. Dozens of animals at English zoos have managed to give their keepers the slip. Photo: ALAMY

A survey has revealed some of the unusual ways in which animals have succeeded in escaping from zoos across the country.

By Jasper Copping
Published: 8:45AM BST 04 Jul 2010

In the film Madagascar a group of cartoon animals breaks out of New York's Central Park zoo in an attempt to escape into the wild.

Alex the Lion is helped over the perimeter wall by his friend Melman the giraffe, while Gloria the hippopotamus smashes her way straight through, followed by Melman and some monkeys.

The scenario might sound fanciful, but real zoo animals appear to be just as determined and resourceful as their cartoon cousins in liberating themselves from captivity.

The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered details of exactly how dozens of animals at English zoos have managed to give their keepers the slip.

The methods of escape range from gnawing a hole in their cages, to scaling fences and crossing moats. In other cases, the creatures have simply capitalised on human error and got out through doors in their cages that were left open.

The real life escapees include:

• Akea, cheetah, who climbed over an 8ft high solar powered electric fence after it developed a fault. Fortunately, he was swiftly recaptured after he was spotted by a nine-year-old boy playing in his garden and returned to nearby Hamerton Zoo, near Huntingdon;
  
  
• A pack of dholes, or Asiatic wild dogs, which chewed through the fence of their pen at Howletts Wild Animal Park, near Canterbury. While some were quickly returned to the enclosure, others spread out in the surrounding countryside, leading police to warn the public not to approach the animals. The last one was not located for three days;
  
  
• A wolf which gnawed a hole in the wire mesh around its enclosure at Combe Martin Wildlife Park, Devon, and then crawled under the zoo's gate. The animal headed out onto a road near the adjacent village and was seen by a passing motorist, who raised the alarm;
  
  
• A wallaby at the same zoo which got out after the door to its enclosure was left open. The wallaby remained at large for several days in the surrounding countryside;
  
  
• A forest buffalo, an African creature which normally weighs up to 565kg, which managed to push the wire of its fence high enough to squeeze underneath it, although it did not succeed in getting out of the grounds of Marwell Zoo, near Winchester;
  
  
• A sulewesi crested macaque which got off its island compound at the same attraction. The animal was found to be wet when it was recovered elsewhere in the zoo, leading keepers to think it had been in the moat around the island;
  
  
• A flamingo, which flew out of the same attraction because staff did not realise it had not had its wings pinioned. It was spotted in a field by a member of the public and eventually recaptured.

Chris Newman, an exotic species expert and adviser to Defra, said: "Animals will be animals. Many of them are very inquisitive and this just shows how opportunistic they are."

One of the most endangered escapees was a red panda called Peter, which got out of his enclosure at London Zoo in the middle of the night and ran into Regent's Park where he climbed a tree.

Security staff alerted keepers who stayed under the tree monitoring him throughout the night. Attempts to coax Peter down with food failed and he had to be shot with a dart.

The information was disclosed in a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to councils, which must be informed of escapes, under the conditions of the licences they grant to zoos.

Each attraction must also hold four "practice escapes" over the course of a year in which a member of staff will play the part of an animal which has got loose.

Miranda Stevenson, director of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, said: "We have to accept that things go wrong and to be prepared for these eventualities which we hope are very few and far between.

"Most escapes are not of dangerous animals."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7870260/The-real-zoo-escapees-that-mimic-the-cartoon-characters-in-Madagascar.html