Lions and tigers and...cops? Oh, my!
A series of prank calls and emails have sown chaos at zoos across the U.S. this year, with visitors and employees forced to evacuate so heavily armed police officers could search for purported deadly threats.
The Association for Zoos and Aquariums has tallied about 40 so-called swatting incidents since spring, including hoaxes that targeted facilities in Orlando, Florida, and San Francisco, California, this month, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Florida's Zoo Miami was swatted four times in as many days in mid-March, with conservation liaison Ron Magill calling it "a bit of a nightmare."
"We’ve never received anything like that and then to have it happen on four consecutive days was just mind blowing," he told The Times.
But one visitor who returned to Zoo Miami after the fourth threat was deemed a hoax March 16 said her job had prepared her for it.
"I’m a school teacher. We get them all the time at school," Rene Wolfe told local TV station WTVJ at the time.
Another zoogoer, Cindy Smith, said: “I think the threats are awful, but they exist, walking into a grocery store or anywhere else.”
"We have to overcome that by not living in fear,” Smith added.
The caged animals reportedly didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, unlike during hurricane preparations that cause stress by disrupting their daily routines.
The swatting spree cost Zoo Miami tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and expenses for security provided by the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office, The Times said.
The zoo also spent $1 million on an updated surveillance system and wanted to buy bomb-sniffing dog but that idea was vetoed by Miami-Dade County, which only approved a system to check for concealed weapons, according to The Times.
Visitors now have their bags checked at the entrance, with Magill saying: "It pains me because this is a family institution, this is where you come with your kids."
Other zoos have been targeted in Denver, Colorado; Memphis, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; and three in Ohio: Columbus, Akron and Toledo.
After the Ohio incidents took place last month, the FBI's Cleveland field office said it was "aware of recent threats involving a number of zoos and other entities over the past several days" and was "working with our law enforcement partner to determine their credibility, share information and take appropriate investigative action."
Cybercrime expert Keven Hendricks of the National White Collar Crime Center told The Times that swatters tend to gather online using social media apps like Discord and Telegram.
They target places open to the public so the incidents will generate local news coverage, he said, then create video montages "to add to their bravado on line."
“This is what they find funny,” he said. “This is them finding camaraderie.”
Hendricks, who teaches law enforcement officers how to investigate swatting, said he suspected the zoos were targeted by groups of swatters acting in tandem.
But Hendricks said he hadn't seen anyone claim credit, and he called on law enforcement to investigate and prosecute.
"It's a perfect storm because most state and local partners will not pursue these cases," he said. "That only emboldens these actors even more."
