In the early hours of May 2, 1924 all three of Edinburgh Zoo’s Californian sea lions escaped their enclosure and made a dash for the exit.
At 9pm the previous night, the animals had been present in their usual quarters, but at 8am the following morning, they were gone.
Incredibly, two of the marine creatures were spotted by a member of the public taking a dip more than a mile away in the Water of Leith near Roseburn Bridge. The third was found in a pool further up the zoological gardens on Corstorphine Hill.
The bold as brass beasts were the zoo’s newest recruits, having arrived in Scotland from New York at the end of April aboard the Assyria steamship.
Zoo authorities arrived in Roseburn with a large net and spent until midday trying to lure the sea lion pair with fish for bait. Eventually, they were successful, and the animals were taken back to their enclosure in the same wire crates in which they had arrived in from the USA.
Edinburgh Zoo director, Mr T.H. Gillespie later said he could not figure out how the flippered mammals had managed to cover all that distance in such a short period of time.
Encore une fois
Astonishingly, the sea lion escape would not be a one-off.
Sign up to our Edinburgh Live nostalgia newsletters for more local history and heritage content straight to your inbox
In July 1924, a little over two months since the first incident at Edinburgh Zoo, a sea lion broke free of its confines and managed to make it past Stockbridge.
The sea lion having escaped and crossed the main road, it is thought to have then emulated the escape from Shawshank Redemption by gaining access to the well known as Corstorphine Stank and slowly progressing through the ditches till it reached the Water of Leith.
At around 7 in the morning, a sighting of the animal was reported near Canonmills. Seven keepers from the zoo spent the rest of the day trying to snare the animal as a huge crowd watched on from Canonmills Bridge.
Days of heavy rain had caused the Water of Leith to rise and gave the escapee “ample scope to dive”. There was also cause for concern that the sea lion could continue to head north along the river and make it to the Firth of Forth.
Eventually, the Dundee Courier reported, the sea lion was cornered between two sluice gates and taken back to the zoo in a crate.
Fresh alterations were made to the sea lion enclosure and no further escapes were reported.
