WELLAND TRIBUNE > LOCAL NEWS Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Escaped bear recaptured

Tribune Staff
Local News - Wednesday, August 08, 2007 Updated @ 3:06:12 PM

FORT ERIE

A 135-kilogram bear, which escaped from a Stevensville zoo late Tuesday night, has been recaptured.

The Niagara Regional Polcie sent out an alert at 2:57 p.m. reporting the bear, named Willy, had been sedated and is now contained at Ott road and Fox Road in Fort Erie.

More details of the capture will follow as they become known.

There's been no official word on how the animal escaped the ZooZ animal zoo overnight.
Officials said they were notified by a Stevensville resident who spotted the bear in town just before midnight.

The animal is about 135 kilograms and is a six-year-old Syrian brown bear, not a Grizzly, as was first reported by officials.

The bear was born in captivity and has been at ZooZ for about five years.

Although the bear is accustomed to people, and has been described as '"well-tempered“ ZooZ officials note the animal is not used to direct interaction with people because visitors to the park are not allowed to feed or touch the animals.

Police and other experts had been going through an ever-expanding search area as the day progressed and a helicopter from the Niagara County Sheriff's office in nearby New York State had also been flying just above the tree tops in the largely rural area to try to locate the bear.

A false sighting of the bear in Port Robinson saw police rush personnel to the area.