Emergency alert at Cleveland zoo after wolf escapes enclosure

Animal was able to access a guest path for about five minutes, forcing the zoo into a lockdown

A wolf briefly breached its habitat at an Ohio zoo, sending it into a lockdown, said authorities.

Identified as a female Mexican grey wolf, the canine was able to access a guest path of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo for five minutes at around 10.20am on Monday, forcing it into a lockdown.

The staff, however “acted quickly to establish a perimeter around the wolf” and the animal was quickly recaptured with no harm caused to guests or employees, said Jacqueline Gerling, director of communications at Cleveland Metropark.

The officials are investigating the incident and more information would be released later, she added.

The zoo, which is home to five Mexican grey wolves, resumed its operation on Monday afternoon.

The smallest of the grey wolf subspecies, Mexican gray wolves grow to be 54 to 66 inches in length and weigh between 50 to 90 pounds.

Listed as an an endangered species in1976, the Mexican wolf “was all but eliminated from the wild by the 1970s due to conflicts with livestock,” according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Same year, a binational captive breeding programme was initiated to save them from extinction.  Almost two decades later, in 1998, the first captive Mexican wolves were released into the Mexican Wold Experimental Population Area in Arizona and New Mexico.

“Absent from the landscape for over 30 years, the resounding howl of the endangered Mexican wolf could once again be heard in the mountains of the Southwest.

Additional reporting from the wires