Nov 10, 2007 6:53 am US/Pacific
Oh Deer: Polar Bears At Pittsburgh Zoo Get Visitor
Wild Deer Jumps Into Icy Pool, Surprising Young Bears
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (CBS) ―
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The two polar bears, top left, chased the deer as it swam around the pool.
KDKA
A wayward wild deer jumped into the polar bear pool at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG aquarium, and the entire incident was caught on the zoo cam, CBS Station KDKA-TV reports.
The deer jumped 20 feet into the pool from the roof of the exhibit. One of the bears immediately was intrigued and swam over, although zoo officials don't believe the bears necessarily had the intention of making a meal of the deer at this point.
"They were two young bears. They didn't know what to do with this deer, which had landed in their pool and the deer that jumped in was an aggressive animal," zoo director Barbara Baker said.
The bears never got a chance to get close. Whenever they approached it, the deer bucked and the bears backed off. But the bears did follow the deer when it got out of the water; at one point, all three animals took a dip in the exhibit's smaller waterfall pool.
The encounter lasted just three minutes.
"At this same time the keepers were running around trying to get the bears in the back into the backup areas, and much to our surprise, the deer followed the bears into the backup area and walked into one of the stalls and the deer went into another stall and everyone was locked down," Baker said.
Unfortunately, the Zoo says the deer was injured in the 20-foot jump from the roof and they had to euthanize it. During the incident, they turned off the zoo cam because they weren't sure what was going to happen and didn't want to frighten anyone.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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