Sydney’s Taronga Zoo says five lions escaped their enclosure earlier this week due to a failure of mesh wire fence fastenings, early reports suggest.
The zoo said in a statement on Friday afternoon that a comprehensive report was still being prepared, but that early indications suggested that was how the big cats left their exhibit.
"While we await the full engineering report, early indications suggest that the lions were able to exit the exhibit when fastenings on the mesh wire fence failed," it said.
“This opening has now been secured, however, the lions will not be back out on their main exhibit while we await further engineering advice."
The zoo said further repairs or reinforcements would be guided by this expertise and they would be seeking approval from the NSW Department of Primary Industries before returning the lions to their enclosure.
Meanwhile, the animals will remain in a back-of-house area, and appear to have suffered no adverse reaction as a result of the event, the zoo said.
Police were called to the sprawling Mosman complex about 7am on Wednesday after one lion and four cubs exited through the fence, sparking "an emergency situation".
The animals had breached one of two containment fences inside the lion enclosure.
Taronga Zoo's executive director, Simon Duffy, said the entire facility had its own safety perimeter fence, which stopped animals mixing with the community outside, on Sydney's lower north shore.
Mr Duffy said four of the lions "calmly" made their way back to their main exhibit on their own and "one lion cub was safely tranquillised".
Video footage confirmed that it was less than 10 minutes between the lions exiting their main exhibit and the full emergency response being enacted, he said.
One family of four were spending the night in a tent as part of the zoo's "Roar and Snore" package when they were startled by a duress alarm.
Zookeepers soon ran them down to a bathroom "safe zone" block.
"They came running down the tent area saying that there's a code one, get out of your tent, leave your belongings behind," Magnus Perri said.
The advertised opportunity to "get up close" with some of its "friendliest residents" made Mr Perri question whether it was "part of the action package"?
"I felt safe all the time … but the bush turkeys must have been packed," he laughed.
