Five lions escape enclosure at Sydney zoo in ‘significant’ safety breach

Taronga zoo’s lion enclosure is home to Ato and Maya and their five cubs

Five lions — four cubs and one adult — briefly escaped their enclosure at the Taronga zoo in Sydney, prompting authorities to rush overnight guests to safe zones and initiate an investigation into the “significant” safety breach.

Zoo authorities found, through video footage, that one of the adult lions named Ato and four cubs were outside their enclosure early on Wednesday, around 6.30am local time.

They immediately sounded a “code one” alert, the most severe one on the zoo’s emergency warning list. Other warnings are code red for fire, code orange for an evacuation and code blue for medical emergencies.

The five lions were, however, separated from the rest of the zoo by a six-foot fence, authorities said.

Police were called in by 7am, but two hours later, authorities said the lions had walked back to their enclosure.

One cub was tranquilised by zoo officials.

The zoo is investigating how the five lions escaped from their enclosures and its authorities have called the safety breach a “significant” incident.

There were no reports of any injuries or casualties to the animals, zoo staff and campers.

“The zoo has very strict safety protocols in place for such an incident and immediate action was taken,” said Simon Duffy, Taronga zoo’s executive director.

Taronga zoo’s lion enclosure is home to Ato and Maya and their five cubs: Khari and Luzuko who are male, and Malika, Zuri and Ayanna who are female. Maya and Ayanna were in the enclosure while the others were loose, reports said.

Magnus Perri and his family of four were spending the night in a tent as part of the zoo’s “Roar and Snore” package, when a duress alarm sounded, ABC News reported. The zookeepers soon rushed them to a bathroom block.

Mr Perri recalled being startled by the zoo staff. “They came running down the tent area saying that there’s a code one, get out of your tent, leave your belongings behind,” he said.

“They opened the door, everyone got in, they counted us, and they locked the door, and we were staying inside the building.”

He remained clueless about what had happened. “The guides had their radios on, and we heard them, and they said, ‘they’re still outside’, so we realised something is outside, and they said it’s the lions, so we’re like, ‘oh scary’,” he said.

Meanwhile, the zoo’s executive director, Mr Duffy, said the lions breached one of two containment fences inside the enclosure. He also announced that besides the investigation into how the lions escaped their enclosure, the lion exhibit will be closed until staff “make sure it is 100 per cent safe”.

“All animals are now safe in their back-of-house exhibit and are being closely monitored. I would remind everyone that Taronga zoo itself has its own safety perimeter fence. So at no time did the lions exit that area or exit Taronga zoo,” he said.

The zoo will be open as normal today, Mr Duffy said, adding that further details will be shared when possible. Local media later reported that dozens of school groups and members of the public entered the zoo later on Wednesday morning as usual.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said: “It’s not very often we get calls for lions on the loose but no doubt police get called to all sorts of things and the zoo has obviously thought to call us and we responded.”

The commissioner added that the zoo’s officials handled the matter without police assistance.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the last time a “code one” emergency was sounded at Taronga zoo was when a chimp escaped its enclosure in 2021.

In 2009, a lioness called Jamelia at Mogo Zoo on NSW’s south coast, was let loose due to a “zookeeper error”.