Indian Zoo Confesses Black Bear Missing Since February 22nd - AFP

[hatrack]

It's big, black and dangerous and could be roaming about the Indian capital. New Delhi zoo would like to hear urgently from anyone who spots a Himalayan bear missing since February. The story is embarrassing zoo authorities who Tuesday declined official comment.
But one official, who asked not to be named, scoffed at explanations offered so far to the Indian media that the female bear may have tried to tunnel her way to freedom.

The zoo official said the bear may have been poached or died from carelessness. An unidentified keeper told the Indian Express the bear -- weighing between 90 to 110 kilograms (198 to 242 pounds) -- had been missing since February 22. A couple of days later, two keepers found a tunnel which they believed had been dug by the bear possibly to escape from an enclosure surrounded by a water-filled moat, he said.

Two men were immediately sent into the tunnel to look for the animal but they gave up for fear of attack, the report said.

On March 3, zoo authorities tried to smoke the bear out but failed, leading them to think it had died underground. A digger was being called in to check. But the zoo official who spoke to AFP said black bears do not tunnel.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Indian_Zoo_Clueless_About_Missing_Bear.html

Call me crazy, but isn't a bear the kind of animal a zoo should sort of, uh, keep tabs on?

:eyes:

[xchrom]

1. that bear has been killed and it's parts sold in

some apothecary shop.

[skids]

2. Now Steven Colbert will have to take a position...

...against the recent nuclear technology exchange deal. At least, until India shows their red-bloodedness by capturing that darn bear and putting it back behind bars where it belongs.