Escaped rescue bears eat week's worth of honey while on the run
Two rescue bears who escaped from a British wildlife park helped themselves to a week's worth of honey while on the run.
Police were called after two resident bears got out of their enclosure at Wildwood Devon, at Escot Park near Ottery St Mary.
Mish and Lucy, who were found after being abandoned by their mother in Albania three years earlier, were moved to the site in 2022 and would have been unable to survive in the wild.
But they fled their enclosure, provoking a major police hunt, and tucked into a large haul of honey at the park's shop.
Visitors were taken to a place of safety as specialists officers attended the scene. The bears were returned safely to their home a short while later.
A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: 'We were made aware of two resident bears having escaped from their home at Escot Park on the afternoon of Monday June 23.
'Specialist officers attended, and visitors were taken to places of safety. The bears were safely returned to their area and secured.'
The incident lasted around an hour and the bears, both five years old, were closely monitored during the process.
A spokesman for Wildwood Devon said: 'Two young bears escaped from their enclosure at Wildwood Devon this afternoon, heading straight for their food store.
'Mish and Lucy, who posed no threat to the public at any point, enjoyed a selection of snacks, including a week's worth of honey, before being safely returned to their enclosure by the expert keeper team within the hour. As a precaution, all visitors on site were promptly escorted to a secure building.
'The bears were continuously monitored both on the ground and via CCTV until they calmly returned to their enclosure and fell asleep.
'In line with standard protocol, police attended the scene, and an investigation is now under way to determine how the incident occurred. The exhibit is secure, and we are grateful to our staff and visitors for their cooperation, which helped us resolve the situation swiftly and safely. Wildwood Devon will be open as usual from tomorrow.'
Wildwood said at the time it rescued the bears it wanted to give them an enclosure which had been left 'as natural as possible with the aim of creating a lifelong habitat'.
The bears, rescued in 2019, were briefly kept in Belgium, unable to return back to the wild for their own safety, before being brought to Escot in June 2021 when a £250,000 appeal to build the enclosure was launched.
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