Emergency response team (zoo)

Goals include: (listed in order of priority) Emergency response teams are not full-time but are typically composed of zoo employees who have received special weapons training from a police agency.

Zoos frequently perform training drills in order to keep the team up to date and ready for a real animal escape.

On February 24, 2007, an emergency response team at the Denver Zoo shot and killed a jaguar which had attacked a zookeeper.

On May 28, 2016, a 4-year-old boy climbed through a public barrier at Gorilla World at around 4pm at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden and fell into the exhibit’s moat.

The two female gorillas in the exhibit were recalled immediately, but the third, a male named Harambe, remained in the yard with the child.