Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

Recently introduced into an animal park approved 6 months prior but not yet open to the public, a wolf escaped with zoo staff on hand after clearing both the primary and secondary fences surrounding the facility. The operator secured the pen area: isolation of the wolves by confining each to a separate cage, and extra fence protection. The wolves still in captivity were released into their pens once the reinforcement work had been completed. The operator informed Prefecture offices, the Director of the Mercantour National Park, the National Hunting Agency and the press. Draped with barbed wire, the top of the grating (with a 5-mm mesh dimension) stood at a height of 2.2 m for the secondary fence and at 1.8 m for the primary fence. Beyond the top of the grating, 3 taut iron wires made for the fence enclosure; the grating height turned out to be not dissuasive. The wolf cleared the fences in two spots that displayed some common characteristics: sloped land and angles located at the upper part of the pen built with strong enough legs to allow for temporary support. The investigation revealed that this escape was facilitated by the absence of grating on the upper return of fences, the fence returns that were possibly too short, and inadequate resources implemented to immobilise the wolf before it cleared the outer fence. Since the wolf on the run had not been found within a couple of hours following the escape, a feeding site was set up to attract it, identify it and facilitate its capture. Measures are adopted to reduce the probability of a repeat occurrence: new fence design, electrified wire at the top of the grating to dissuade crossing, etc.