Was the bear that escaped the city zoo in Pocatello in 1969 ever found? Here’s what happened.
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POCATELLO — A bear escaped from the Ross Park Zoo in Pocatello in 1969 after police said vandals apparently cut a hole in its cage.
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The story on the missing bear was featured in our weekly Looking Back column, which looks back on what life was like during certain time periods in east Idaho history. EastIdahoNews.com readers wanted to know what happened to the bear, and this is what we found out.
Bear on the loose, vandalism continues at zoo
The 250-pound female black bear was about three years old when she escaped May 4, 1969, according to the Idaho State Journal. The bear, which had recently shed its hair after coming out of hibernation, took off between midnight on Saturday and 2 a.m. Sunday.
“Freeing the animals not only is dangerous to the public but is cruel to the animals, which are not accustomed to surviving in the wild,” city zookeeper DeMar Day told the Journal.
The Journal reported over a week after the bear went missing, on May 14, 1969, that it had been seen in the lava rock area above the Cheyenne Crossing of the Union Pacific Railroad.
“The bear drinks out of a watering trough in a nearby pasture,” city parks assistant Leonard Carlson stated. “The animal will be captured and returned to the zoo as soon as the state fish and game department has the necessary equipment here.”
At that time, Carlson announced on top of vandals cutting a hole in the bear’s cage, “continued vandalism” was happening at Ross Park. The city council offered a $50 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone tampering with the pens and releasing zoo animals.
Carlson also said anyone caught in either upper or lower levels of the park after 11 p.m. would be arrested.
“The arrests will be made by Safeguard Systems Inc., the private security firm hired by the city to patrol the park,” the Journal mentioned. “The city council recently engaged Safeguard Systems, operated by Anson Garrett … Garrett is equipped with specially trained police dogs.”
Was the bear ever found?
Almost three months after the article on the planned attempt to capture the bear was written, the Journal reported the bear had not been captured after all and was found dead. The Journal said the bear died of starvation.
“The carcass was only skin and bones when found recently in lava rock about two blocks south of the park,” Day stated.
He had predicted the bear couldn’t survive outside the zoo because there wasn’t enough fish or wild berries in the vicinity to provide food for the animal.
“She was last seen alive about two weeks (after her escape) in the same area where she died,” the article states.
Day believed the bear had been dead about a month when the animal was found.