Five lions managed to escape from their enclosure at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo, prompting the zoo to issue a “code one” alarm and rescue guests from its late-night “Roar and Snore” show.
The alert was issued after video showed an adult male lion named Ato and four cubs outside their enclosure at 6:30 a.m., though they were still in an area separated from the rest of the zoo by a six-foot fence.
Zookeepers tranquilized and returned one cub, while the other four returned on their own initiative.
The zoo said its emergency response was adopted less than 10 minutes after the lions fled the main exhibit area.
It was confirmed that the lions would be back in their enclosure at 9:00 am, local media reported.
There were no injuries to people or animals and the zoo was open as normal.
“The zoo has very strict safety protocols in place for such an incident and immediate action was taken,” Taronga Zoo CEO Simon Duffy told a news conference, reports RTE.
Police were called to the zoo, and staff scrambled to get Roar and Snore’s guests out of harm’s way.
“They came running into the tent area saying, ‘this is a Code One, get out of your tent and run, come now and leave your belongings,” Magnus Perri, one of the guests, told local media as his family left the zoo, reports RTE.
Taronga Zoo’s lion enclosure is home to Ato and Maya and their five cubs: Khari and Luzuko, who are male, and Malika, Zuri, and Ayanna, who are female.
Maya and Ayanna remained in the compound while the others freed themselves.
The zoo does not yet know how the animals escaped and has launched a formal review.
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