Many people take their children to the zoo so they can get up close and personal with animals they may not see in real life. This is something that was happening at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, but things didn’t turn out quite as the parents expected.
As children gathered around the glass enclosure to watch Juniper the bear for the day, they got an eye full of something that was horrifying. Suddenly, the nice trip to the zoo gave the young children a brutal example of life and death that is all too natural.
Rachelle was at the zoo with her daughter and a group of friends on April 23. She posts videos on TikTok, and on this particular day, they were there to celebrate her daughter’s birthday.
The video was shared online, and you can see the children staring into the enclosure with Juniper the brown bear on the inside. Juniper was found roaming the mountains in Alaska alone and was brought to the zoo.
There are plenty of things to make Juniper feel at home in the enclosure, including logs, rocks, and a pool of water. There was something on the water that caught her attention, however, and it was a mother duck and her ducklings.
That is where things went wrong. Juniper was staring at the ducks as they swam around the pool and suddenly, she jumped into the water and took off in their direction. Many of the children and adults were hitting the glass to try to distract Juniper but she wasn’t paying attention.
Suddenly, Juniper grabbed one of the ducklings between her paws and ate it right in front of everyone at the glass. Juniper then looked toward the other ducklings.
When posting the video, the mother said: “A Nat Geo train wreck for my daughter’s birthday, thanks Juniper!”
It’s important that the mother said that the children didn’t enjoy watching the ducklings get eaten but they were not traumatized by the event. At least now they know not to approach bears in the wild.