It wasn't so much a zoo as it was a conveyor belt with scenery. From start to finish it had been designed to funnel visitors through a singular subterranean walkway that allowed them to gaze right into the heart of their exhibitions.
Truly it was a stroke of genius - maximum display with minimal stress and minimal effort. Aside from maintaining that singular pathway and the occasional resting area, there was little else for visitors to do other than go forward, forward, always forward to the next display.
They really should have planned for escaped animals better. There was nowhere for anyone to run to, nowhere for them to hide when a bear managed to break through the thin electrified fence that was meant to contain it. Honestly the visual of the fence probably kept it in better than the physical fence itself.
My first instinct was to climb the fake trees on either side of the jungle themed section I was in when the chaos erupted. Most people thought laterally and tried to reverse which led to a stampede too brutal for any nature documentary.
When panic sets in, empathy leaves. Parents forgot their children and even trampled others to death as they desperately tried to head back to the entrance, all the while I crouched on a fake branch that overlooked the increasingly gory scene.
It didn't take too long for the stampede to have moved further back, leaving broken bodies and the faint sounds of sobbing in their wake. Just as I thought it might be safe to come back down, the bear ran through, trailing blood and with entrails tangled around its front paws.
It never stopped, never looked up. Even if it had I doubt I was nearly as interesting as the screaming crowd that didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of outrunning it... not in such close quarters and not without running into other displays.
Apparently several did though and headed right for the "friendly" animals in the hopes that the bear would run right past and they could creep to the exit in peace and safety. They forgot that every animal in a zoo is tolerant of humans at the best of times, domestication is never their goal.
I hear they're still washing blood off the zebras.
Truly it was a stroke of genius - maximum display with minimal stress and minimal effort. Aside from maintaining that singular pathway and the occasional resting area, there was little else for visitors to do other than go forward, forward, always forward to the next display.
They really should have planned for escaped animals better. There was nowhere for anyone to run to, nowhere for them to hide when a bear managed to break through the thin electrified fence that was meant to contain it. Honestly the visual of the fence probably kept it in better than the physical fence itself.
My first instinct was to climb the fake trees on either side of the jungle themed section I was in when the chaos erupted. Most people thought laterally and tried to reverse which led to a stampede too brutal for any nature documentary.
When panic sets in, empathy leaves. Parents forgot their children and even trampled others to death as they desperately tried to head back to the entrance, all the while I crouched on a fake branch that overlooked the increasingly gory scene.
It didn't take too long for the stampede to have moved further back, leaving broken bodies and the faint sounds of sobbing in their wake. Just as I thought it might be safe to come back down, the bear ran through, trailing blood and with entrails tangled around its front paws.
It never stopped, never looked up. Even if it had I doubt I was nearly as interesting as the screaming crowd that didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of outrunning it... not in such close quarters and not without running into other displays.
Apparently several did though and headed right for the "friendly" animals in the hopes that the bear would run right past and they could creep to the exit in peace and safety. They forgot that every animal in a zoo is tolerant of humans at the best of times, domestication is never their goal.
I hear they're still washing blood off the zebras.
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