Bear sighting forces closures at Walt Disney World in Florida
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Before the bear was captured, Walt Disney World said it had closed some of the theme park’s sections, including Frontierland, Liberty Square and Adventureland.
PHOTO: REUTERS
ORLANDO, Florida – Singing and dancing animatronic bears are a common sight at the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World, but a bear that was spotted there on Monday was real and most likely looking for food, prompting officials to close some rides and attractions.
Biologists and law enforcement officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission “safely captured” an adult female black bear at the theme park near Orlando, Florida, on Monday afternoon, Ms Lisa Thompson, a spokeswoman for the commission, said in an e-mail.
Before the commission announced that the bear had been captured, Walt Disney World said in an e-mailed statement that it had closed some of the theme park’s sections, including Frontierland, Liberty Square and Adventureland. The company did not give a timetable for when the sections would reopen.
Ms Thompson said that a black bear had been spotted in a tree at Magic Kingdom, a theme park whose world-famous attractions include Cinderella’s castle and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
“In most cases, it is best for bears to be given space and to move along on their own, but given this situation, staff have captured the animal and are relocating the bear out of the park to an area in or around the Ocala National Forest,” Ms Thompson said.
Bears are more active in the fall because they are looking for food so they can pack on fat before winter, she said.
“This particular bear was likely moving through the area searching for food,” she added.
Video footage that local news channel WESH took from a helicopter shows about a dozen people combing through a wooded area at the park. Five people appear later in the video carrying a large object wrapped in a white tarpaulin or sheet out of the park.
Black bears are the only species of bear in Florida, according to the fish and wildlife commission. There are about 4,050 black bears in the state, it said, adding that they can run up to 56kmh and climb 30m up a tree in 30 seconds.
The biggest threats to bears in Florida are habitat loss and fragmentation, and interactions with humans, including bears being hit by vehicles. NYTIMES
