bears<\/a> who escaped from their enclosure in a South West tourist attraction helped themselves to a week’s worth of honey before being returned to their home.<\/p>\nThe incident, which took place at Escot Park, part of Wildwood Devon, near Ottery St Mary, saw a major police response.<\/p>\n
A police helicopter was seen circling the Devon area and visitors were taken to safety.<\/p>\n
The two bears, Mish and Lucy, escaped to the food store to help themselves to a selection of snacks.<\/p>\n
The pair, who are both five years old, had a week’s worth of honey before being returned to their enclosure.<\/p>\n
The incident lasted around an hour and the bears were closely monitored during the process.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Wildwood Devon said: “Two young bears escaped from their enclosure at Wildwood Devon this afternoon, heading straight for their food store.<\/p>\n
“Mish and Lucy (both five years old), 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.<\/p>\n
“As a precaution, all visitors on site were promptly escorted to a secure building.<\/p>\n
“The bears were continuously monitored both on the ground and via CCTV until they calmly returned to their enclosure and fell asleep.<\/p>\n
“In line with standard protocol, police attended the scene, and an investigation is now underway to determine how the incident occurred.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“Wildwood Devon will be open as usual from tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
A local school advised parents whose children usually walk home alone to pick them up instead whilst the bears were on the loose.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson 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.<\/p>\n
“Specialist officers attended and visitors taken to places of safety.<\/p>\n
“The bears were safely returned to their area and secured.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visitors had to be escorted to a secure buildingBear cubs Mish and Lucy(Image: Wildwood Escot) Two bears who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[933,381,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-209208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114735946491726427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Bear](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_1oRftPY4Q1OxqOHs9vw1Cubs600.jpg\")
Bear cubs Mish and Lucy(Image: Wildwood Escot)<\/p>\n