A black bear wandered onto the grounds of a zoo in New Jersey on Monday, leading wary zoo officials to close the facility for the day.
The black bear was seen on the grounds of Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, New Jersey, about 13.5 miles northwest of New York City, part of the Essex County Park System. Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. announced the subsequent closure on Facebook and offered an apology to the public for the inconvenience.
Prior to being spotted in the zoo, the bear was seen in the South Mountain Reservation, a reserve that is also part of the Essex County Park System. It then got onto zoo grounds at about noon, prompting a shelter-in-place order for people who were at the zoo, according to NJ.com.
Essex County public information director Anthony Puglisi told NJ.com that “at no time did the bear come in contact with any humans, and everyone was safely evacuated from the zoo with assistance from the Essex County Sheriff’s Office.”
The zoo reopened at its normal hours on Tuesday after zoo staff determined the bear was no longer in the area, according to local nonprofit newsroom Montclair Local.
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