A one-year-old grizzly bear is safely back behind barriers after getting out of his habitat at the Wilder Institute’s Calgary Zoo on Sunday morning. The zoo says Fitz escaped his habitat around 7:30 a.m., prompting staff to activate emergency response procedures. “It is a little unusual,” said former large carnivore conflict biologist Jay Honeyman. “Bears can be pretty determined, and they are very curious, and if there was any kind of a weakness (in their habitat), it would not surprise me that a bear would find that weakness.” Trained members of the zoo’s animal care, health and welfare, and security teams responded. Calgary emergency crews also attended and remained on standby. Fitz was successfully immobilized and safely relocated to a back-of-house space. The incident happened before the zoo opened to the public. No guests, staff members, volunteers or animals were injured. The zoo opened shortly after 9 a.m., but its Wild Canada area remained temporarily closed while staff completed a full assessment. Wild Canada reopened to visitors around noon. The zoo says it is now reviewing the circumstances surrounding the incident through its established post-incident procedures, adding it has no further information to share at this time. Julie Woodyer, campaigns director for Zoocheck, says animals escape zoo enclosures all the time. “It is unfortunate, and the Calgary Zoo is one of the biggest zoos in Canada and should be able to contain the animals safely, particularly the more dangerous species,” said Woodyer. “In my mind, this is yet another in a long series of concerns at that zoo, and one would hope that every time something like this happens, they put in place new protocols.” In 2024, a two-year-old gorilla died at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo while being moved between back-of-house spaces. Emara, a 12-year-old Masai giraffe, died in 2023 from a broken neck. “It is distressing to see that incidents continue at one of the larger, more esteemed zoos in the country,” said Woodyer. It has not disclosed how Fitz exited the habitat, how long he was outside it or how far he travelled. Fitz and his brother Turner were taken in by the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo after being orphaned in southern Alberta last fall. Their mother was killed during an encounter with a person near Diamond Valley. Because the cubs were still fully dependent on her, officials determined they would not have survived on their own in the wild.
