Chris Murray, her daughter and her grandchildren had just left the rhinoceros exhibit at the Buffalo Zoo Wednesday when she noticed a small truck approaching. Then she saw some zookeepers carrying tranquilizer guns.
Another zookeeper calmly told them to get inside a building.
As they headed toward a shelter, they overheard a call over a worker’s radio: “The rhino is secure.”
A rhinoceros at the zoo was reported to have escaped its enclosure but it was quickly secured and back in its home within a couple of minutes, police said. It was not immediately clear how it may have gotten out.
Zoo officials said that a 3,000-pound greater one-horned rhino named Mohan was seen out of its “primary enclosure” at about 11:55 a.m. It was in an area that was “an adjacent animal paddock that he is normally not allowed to be in.”
The rhino was behind multiple barriers and did not pose a threat to the public, zoo officials said.
Emergency procedures were activated, including sealing off zoo entry, directing guests to secure indoor locations and calling the Buffalo police.
“Zoo staff had eyes on him throughout the entire process as they worked to safely return Mohan back to his enclosure,” a statement from the zoo said.
“The entire incident lasted less than 10 minutes,” the zoo said.
Visitors at the zoo said workers handled the situation calmly but they were curious about what had taken place.
Alysia Sikorski and her boyfriend, Dustin Janik, and their children, Amyla, 3, and Daxsen, almost 2, had just left the eating area when a worker told them they needed to go back inside.
“What’s going on?” Sikorski asked.
The worker said there might be an animal on the loose.
“What kind of animal?” she asked.
A rhino, the worker said. Then an all-clear was given.
Sikorski said she wasn’t nervous.
“I thought it would be cool to see a rhino running by since we were inside,” she said.
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