Daily Dose of Common Sense

Last month, a German teacher jumped in the polar bear exhibit at the Berlin Zoo and took a swim. The result? Polar bear attack.

This episode continues a bizarre pattern in recent years of inappropriate behavior at zoos. People seem to have forgotten that these are WILD animals. Last November, a student was bitten by a panda bear in China because he was attempting to hug the animal. In 2007, a 15-year old boy jumped into the panda exhibit in the Beijing Zoo, only to have the bear bite him severely on both legs.

Obviously, no one is glad that these people were injured. But some folks have clearly forgotten that polar bears and panda bears, while cute, are still BEARS.

It’s sad that zoos need to not only think about keeping the wild animals in but also the crazy zoo visitors OUT.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 6:15 pm and is filed under Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.