If they looked close enough, people riding the tram Monday at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo could see an endangered Mexican gray wolf running up a hill.
How did it get there?
“I thought it was a coyote, actually. I thought it was more likely that an animal got into the zoo, than an animal that was in the zoo got loose,” said Jesse Hudson, who was riding the tram with his son when he spotted the animal, according to WKYC. Hudson said the zoo staff quickly got the situation under control.
To do so, they tranquilized the 4-year-old wolf named Sarra within an hour of her escape.
“This morning a Mexican Gray Wolf was secured by staff after briefly breaching its habitat,” said Jacqueline Gerling, director of communications for the zoo, in a statement provided to WKYC Monday. “No guests or employees were harmed.”
At that time, she said that the incident was under investigation, but that the zoo was safe for visitors.
By Tuesday, staff determined that Sarra had scaled containment walls and created a gap at the top of the enclosure she was in to escape, according to an email Gerling sent to Celveland.com.
Dr. Chris Kuhar, the executive director, explained that the wolf was not part of an exhibit, and was instead housed in an off-exhibit area. He said that Sarra sustained no injuries and was healthy when staff found her.
She was returned to the building where she came from.
A wolf habitat at the zoo was closed for the rest of Monday and Sarra rested after her escape.
According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, “the Mexican wolf was all but eliminated from the wild by the 1970s due to conflicts with livestock.”
Starting in 1976, the Mexican wolf was listed as an endangered animal. A binational captive breeding program was initiated soon after and, in 1998, the service released captive wolves into an experimental population area.
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