The bear's behavior gave zoo visitors a serious fright

Jul 7, 2015 12:21 GMT  ·  By

A most peculiar incident happened at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, US, this past Monday. A grizzly bear living in captivity at this wildlife facility took a break from its usual napping and eating routine and tried to make a run for freedom instead. 

The bear, one of three sharing the same habitat, picked up a basketball-sized rock lying around in its enclosure and proceeded to repeatedly slam it into the glass pane separating it from zoo staff and visitors.

Rest assured, nobody was injured

One doesn't have to be a wildlife expert to know that grizzly bears are seriously powerful creatures. They've even been known to smash cars if not in a friendly mood.

Witnesses say all it took for the five-layer glass pane to shatter was a few perfectly executed hits. Luckily, the pane didn't come crushing down but instead remained in place, as badly damaged as it was. As for the bear, it remained trapped in its enclosure.

Reports say the rock the grizzly bear picked up from the bottom of its pool and repeatedly slammed against the pane weighed somewhere around 50 pounds (over 20 kilograms).

Zoo staff were taken quite by surprise

At least for now, it is unclear why the grizzly bear turned aggressive all of a sudden. It might be that one of the people visiting the zoo at the time did something to upset it. So far, zoo officials have not made any comments on why the bear behaved the way it did.

In fact, it looks like staff don't even know which of the three bears living in the damaged enclosure was the one that tried to destroy the glass pane. Zoo employee Tony Fisher suspects that it was a male named Kenai and argues that the animal was most likely simply bored and wanted to have some fun.

“He didn’t know what he was doing. He was just being a bear,” Tony Fisher said in an interview, as cited by Star Tribune. Following the incident, the bear exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo was closed. Staff promise to secure all heavy objects in the enclosure to prevent any other such mishaps.

The bear almost destroyed the glass pane
The bear almost destroyed the glass pane

Photo Gallery (2 Images)

Grizzly bears are insanely powerful animals
The bear almost destroyed the glass pane
Open gallery