Ground&Pound

Wild deer wonders into the polar bear exhibit at the Pittsburgh zoo.

video: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07313/832636-85.stm

Wild deer jumps into polar bear tank at Pittsburgh Zoo
Friday, November 09, 2007
By Wade Malcolm, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A wild whitetail deer jumped from the top of a 20 foot wall into the tank of two young polar bears at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium this morning.

And the apparently feisty forest dweller survived the encounter, at least for a little while.

On land and through the water, the bears chased the deer around in circles for a few minutes after he plunged into the cold water at 11:30 a.m., but they never mounted an attack, zoo officials said. Zoo keepers eventually lured the bears and the deer into holding pens. But the deer went into shock after the incident and had to be euthanized.

Before that, though, the buck gave the brother bears, who will turn 3 this month, quite the tussle, zoo officials said. As zoo patrons watched, the deer kept the curious bears at bay with head butts and hooves, forcing them to back off when they came near their unusual visitor, said Dr. Barbara Baker, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Zoo. The whole ordeal only lasted a few minutes and was caught on the camera that shows a live feed from the polar bear exhibit.

"The young bears didn't know what to do . . . and the deer was an aggressive animal," she said, adding the situation probably would have ended differently with older bears. "They're very inquisitive and very curious," she said of the young bears, "but they don't have that killing instinct."

ISU2008

You'd think the title would be "Zookeepers find deer bits in polar bear pen"

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The Big Stiffy

How big was the deer?

had to let the redneck in me ask that one

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Ground&Pound

They didn't say how big it was, but I say an interview with the zookeeper and she said the deer was very agressive and was using its antlers and front legs to attack the bears.

Deer have become like rats and pigeons here in the suburbs. They are everywhere. Just about anyone you talk has hit a deer with their car at some point.

Last year, one jumped out in front of me and I was able to stop in time. While at a dead stop a second deer slams into the front end of my car and goes sliding across my hood.

The best part is that the hunters still head up to the "mountains" to hunt even though there are more (and bigger) deer in their own backyards. I think they just want to get away from their wives for awhile and drink some beers.