Infant bison attack at zoo goes unanswered, say watchers

2009-06-30

Bill Kaufmann, Calgary Sun

The Calgary Zoo’s emergency response is being slammed after a visitor’s alert over one bison’s attack on its newborn sibling went unanswered. Calgarian John Preet said when he saw a two-hour-old bison being jostled and “gored” by its older sibling on Sunday evening, he called an off-duty zoo staffer.

But Preet said he was horrified when nobody responded for an hour, adding he was confronted by zoo staff when taking photos of the incident. “The public was herded away,” said Preet, who says he’s been a regular contributor to the zoo.

Zoo spokesman Grahame Newton said a miscommunication over Preet’s call occurred, adding examinations by a vet that followed soon after showed the newborn bison had suffered no injuries.

He said keepers wouldn’t have handled the situation differently anyway. “It’s not unusual for this thing to happen — you don’t want to interfere with what’s natural behaviour,” said Newton.

“If it looked like it was getting serious and it was a potential risk to the animal, they’d take steps to deal with it.”

But Preet said zoo staff did separate the animals.

“If it’s such a natural occurence, why would they do that?” he said.

The incident showed the lack of the facility’s lack of emergency procedures, said ZooCheck Canada’s Julie Woodyear.

“Everybody should know who to call when there’s an emergency — what if it had been a big cat that had escaped, how would they manage that?” she said. Woodyear also said newborns like the bison should be monitored.

“Captivity is not a natural situation which causes additional stressors,” she said.

Newton said stickers with an emergency number to call in case of incidents involving visitors or animals are being posted throughout the grounds.