Camel Hurt After Asian Gaur Escapes At Zoo Miami
SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE (CBS4) -- A camel at Zoo Miami was slightly hurt Thursday morning after an Indian Guar escaped from its exhibit and jumped into the camel exhibit, all this while the zoo was open to the public.
At around 10:25 a.m., a "Code Green" radio alert was given signaling that an Indian Gaur, a type of wild cattle, had escaped. Officials at Zoo Miami say the 1 ½ year old male escaped by jumping into the moat that surrounds its display. Once it was out, it ran through a service area and headed to the Dromedary Camel exhibit.
The gaur then crossed the moat at the Dromedary Camel exhibit. The camels ran around to avoid the gaur. That's when an elderly female camel slipped, fell and couldn't get up. Zoo officials say she suffered some superficial scrapes and bruises but there were no other visible external injuries and she was never touched by the gaur. While the camel is standing again on her own, there is a chance she may have more serious muscular injuries that we will be evaluated closely for the next 24 hours, according to zoo staff.
The guar eventually left the camel exhibit the same way he arrived, across the moat and back out into the service area. In the private service area, the guar was corralled back into the moat in its own exhibit. Zoo staff then coaxed the animal its holding pen where it was secured about a half-hour after its escape.
At the moment the "Code Green" was called, zoo officials closed all entrance and exit areas within the zoo including the public admission gates. "Though the animal could have theoretically accessed public areas, it did not and there was no time when it was ever a threat to our visitors," according to a release from the zoo.
A preliminary investigation indicated a compromised area in the rear moat of the exhibit which allowed the animal to breach the barrier. Zoo management is in the process of examining modifications that need to be made to insure that this incident does not happen again and until those modifications are implemented, the gaur will remain in their secure holding pens and off exhibit to the public.
