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That's no escaped elephant; it's only a drill at Denver Zoo

By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News (Contact), Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 14, 2008 at 2:09 p.m.
Updated October 14, 2008 at 3:06 p.m.

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Oops!

A citizen's call to Denver police dispatchers this afternoon sparked a momentary fear that an elephant had escaped from its enclosure at the Denver Zoo and had injured a keeper.

But Denver Zoo spokeswomen called media moments later to assure them that it was all just a drill.

"All the animals are fine," Tiffany Barnhart, of the Denver Zoo, said this afternoon. "We're running a drill. Someone got confused in the public and called the police.

"But no one was hurt. There was no escape. No animal has come close to escaping."

Barnhart said the zoo runs drills about five times a year to stay sharp. This scenario involved what to do if an elephant got loose.

Someone apparently called police dispatch and the word spread — but just for a few minutes.

The Rocky Mountain News wasn't sleeping, reacting so fast that it confirmed the report with police and got out an alert on the escaped elephant just before word came that it was just a drill — and just in time to perhaps confuse a few readers.

Rocky staffers heard of an escaped elephant over the police scanner and jumped into action.

"They have a roaming elephant," a Denver police dispatcher told the Rocky.

"Believe it or not they don't know where it is," she added. "It looks like the keeper is injured, but it doesn't say how bad."

A news alert went out from the Rocky's Web site with word of the escape; another alert was sent a couple of minutes later — about 2 p.m. — with word of the drill.

As the confusion cleared, another police dispatcher said: "They were doing training without letting anyone know."

"I just know that we got a report of it and it turned out that it was just training," he said.

CBS4 News got its helicopter in the air and headed for the zoo before getting the word that it was just a drill.

The zoo then sent out a short press release titled "NO ESCAPE."

If an elephant had really escaped today, it wouldn't have been the first time for the Denver Zoo.

In June of 2001, visitors scattered when Hope, a 6,700-pound Asian elephant fled through a gate and rumbled through the zoo.

Hope knocked Bailey resident Denise Jones in the right shoulder, and that caused Jones' daughter to be knocked out of a wagon.

A handler got minor cuts when he scraped against a wall, and another visitor may have sprained a wrist.

Back then, the zoo had allowed Hope and her nephew Amigo to walk through the grounds with their handlers, without leashes.

The zoo suspended that program after Hope's escape.

Hope was on a small service road next to the exhibit when she got startled. Her trainer dropped a 55-gallon barrel, causing her to start. She walked over a 3-foot gate and into the zoo crowd.

Handlers said Hope looked like she was trying to avoid people while walking her normal route.

The Denver Zoo also pulled its TV ads about a family that lost its pet elephant when it escaped from a fenced-in area.

Hope and Amigo were owned by a California company, Have Trunk Will Travel, and were scheduled to be at the zoo all summer of 2001.

Zookeeping can be a dangerous job in Denver. Last year, the Rocky reported on 45 animal-inflicted injuries to zookeepers between 2002 and 2007. Th orneriest animals were sea lions, but the injuries came from an array of animals from elephants to hogs, birds, otters and a mongoose.

The only fatal encounter came in February of last year, when a jaguar attacked zookeeper Ashlee Pfaff through an open exhibit door.

Comments

  • October 14, 2008

    2:43 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    rocketgirl writes:

    We had a fire drill at work yesterday.

  • October 14, 2008

    3 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    TheDenverB writes:

    yeah, but your fire drill wasn't as comical as this.

    good, fun story guys.

  • October 14, 2008

    3:05 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    windskull writes:

    Call SWAT I got a knot in my shoelace & can`t get the last olive from the jar !

  • October 14, 2008

    3:32 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    truth22 writes:

    "THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!"

    SIGNED, THE RMN AND CBS4.

  • October 14, 2008

    3:38 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Gonzopozo writes:

    What's the zoo drilling for? Oil?

  • October 14, 2008

    3:47 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    TheDenverB writes:

    truth, lets just assume that this wasn't a drill.. isn't it nice to know that they pay an intern top-dollar at both the RMN and CBS4 to monitor a police scanner all day?

    i mean, i don't know where you live... but if an elephant really did escape from the zoo, i'd be in one of four immediate directions it could head and would DEFINITELY want to get down there and by a gawker in the way of the first responders.

  • October 14, 2008

    4:07 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    truth22 writes:

    DenverB, this is typical, liberal biased reporting!
    Had it been a DONKEY that supposedly escaped, we wouldn't have heard a thing about it!
    *wink-wink*