Two bears escape Devon enclosure to eat week’s worth of honey before falling asleep

Two rescue bears who escaped from a British wildlife park helped themselves to a week’s worth of honey.

Police were called after two resident bears got out of their home at Wildwood Devon at Escot Park near Ottery St Mary.

Mish and Lucy, who were found after being abandoned by their mother in Albania three years earlier, moved to the site in 2022, unable to survive in the wild.

But it seems the orphan cubs managed to find the perfect place to raid for provisions: the store next to their enclosure.

A food delivery had just been brought in for the young bears, who helped themselves to what a zoo worker referred to as a ‘feast’.

The pair, who are both five years old, indulged in a copious amount of honey before being returned to their enclosure and taking a well-deserved nap.

Visitors were taken to a place of safety as specialist officers attended the scene and returned the bears home shortly after.

The incident lasted around an hour, and the bears were closely monitored during the process.

Devon and Cornwall Police said: ‘We were made aware of two resident bears having escaped from their home at Escot Park.

‘Specialist officers attended, and visitors were taken to places of safety. The bears were safely returned to their area and secured.’

A spokesperson for Wildwood Devon said: ‘Two young bears escaped from their enclosure at Wildwood Devon this afternoon, heading straight for their food store.

‘Mish and Lucy (both five years old), who posed no threat to the public at any point, enjoyed a selection of snacks – including a week’s worth of honey – before being safely returned to their enclosure by the expert keeper team within the hour.

‘As a precaution, all visitors on site were promptly escorted to a secure building. The bears were continuously monitored both on the ground and via CCTV until they calmly returned to their enclosure and fell asleep.’

Police attended the scene, and staff say they are investigating to find out how the accident occurred.

Wildwood said at the time it rescued the bears it wanted to give them an enclosure which had been left ‘as natural as possible with the aim of creating a lifelong habitat’.

The bears, who were rescued in 2019, were kept briefly in Belgium, unable to return back to the wild ‘for their own safety’.

They were then brought to Escot in June 2021 when a £250,000 appeal was launched to build the enclosure.

Wildwood Devon general manager said previously: ‘They’re the first bears we’ve ever had at Escot and have become firm favourites with our visitors.’

Last year, a capybara named Cinnamon made a daring escape from her enclosure, wandering onto military land.

Teams had been working around the clock to locate the missing capybara, who was ‘living her best life’ in the woodlands around the zoo.

A thermal drone was also used to try and locate Cinnamon, who is gifted at hiding. After five days, she was located.

Will Dorrell, the zoo’s owner, said: ‘When we saw her on the drone she was looking very good, she was sat there very happily munching on grass.’

Cinnamon first went missing on Friday, September 14, and managed to get beyond the zoo’s perimeter fence, where she was spotted on a nearby road.

Capybaras are a giant rodent native to South America. They’re considered very social animals and rely on each other for their well-being.

Being social animals, capybaras have gone viral online for their odd antics together. In 2016, a photo of 11 capybaras waiting out a rainstorm at the Nagasaki Bio Park, a zoo and botanical gardens in Japan went viral.

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