Fitz the grizzly bear briefly escapes his enclosure at the Calgary Zoo

Fitz, a one-year-old male grizzly bear, briefly escaped his enclosure at the Wilder Institute's Calgary Zoo on Sunday morning, approximately 90 minutes before the zoo was scheduled to open to the public. Zoo officials confirmed the incident occurred around 7:30 a.m., triggering immediate activation of emergency response protocols.

According to an email statement from zoo media relations, the bear was successfully immobilized by the Animal Care, Health & Welfare team and safely returned to a back-of-house space. Crucially, there were no injuries sustained by any guests, staff, volunteers, or other animals during the escape and subsequent recapture.

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Fitz was successfully immobilized, and our Animal Care, Health & Welfare team safely relocated him to his back-of-house space. There were no injuries to guests, staff, volunteers or animals.

The zoo opened to the public as planned shortly after 9 a.m. However, the Wild Canada section, which houses the grizzly bear enclosure, remained temporarily closed. This closure allowed for a full assessment of the area following the incident. The section was later reopened to visitors early Sunday afternoon.

Fitz is one of two cubs orphaned last fall near Diamond Valley. He and his sibling made their public debut at the Calgary Zoo in May. The zoo stated that its teams will review the circumstances of the incident as part of their established post-incident procedures. No further information was immediately available.

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Our teams will be reviewing the circumstances of the incident as part of our established post-incident procedures. We do not have any further information to share at this time.