By Jordan Kwong
In the town of Green Bay, Wisconsin, a river otter remains on the loose after escaping its enclosure during a snowstorm. According to officials from the NEW Zoo and Adventure Park, they escaped through a hole in a snow-buried fence. Surveillance footage of the otters’ escape has gone viral online, featuring them comedically wading through and sliding around the snow.
The otters, luckily native to the Green Bay area, are fully expected to survive in the conditions. Nearby rivers offer plenty of food and shelter and their territorial nature keeps them in close proximity to the zoo.
As of April 1st, one otter (Ophelia) has been found and returned to the zoo. The other one, Louie, who is likely in search of a mate, has not yet returned home. With “a hired tracker, motion-activated cameras, and public calls to send in photos and video of sightings of the critters,” the zoo hopes to find Louie soon.
This isn’t the first occurrence of such an incident this year. In March, a 3-year old giraffe named Msituni from Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, Arizona escaped her enclosure. Turns out, she was simply going for a walk to munch on a nearby Mesquite tree. It wasn’t a large ordeal, and zookeepers were able to get her back into the enclosure with the help of additional treats.
In February, three Zebras escaped from their enclosure at Jyllands Park Zoo in Denmark. They achieved this by kicking open a lock and running out of the pen. Luckily, zoo officials were able to track down and tranquilize the animals to return them safely
These instances of escaped animals highlight a question of the nature of zoos. While the stories can be entertaining and humorous, zoos are without a doubt unnatural. Animals are subject to enclosures that are a fraction of what their normal roaming grounds would be. Clearly, they yearn for freedom. Everyone loves to see animals, but zoos must be kept responsible for ensuring these animals remain happy and healthy in their enclosures.