"A Nat Geo train wreck for my daughter's birthday, thanks Juniper!"
That's how the mother who took the above video captioned her post, in which Woodland Park Zoo grizzly bear Juniper jumped and scarfed down some ducklings that flew into her enclosure. Things like this, unfortunately (or, if you're the predatory animal involved, fortunately) happen from time to time in zoos, perhaps more often than most visitors suspect. A lot of times we find the damage done when we come in the mornings; perhaps even more often we don't find anything, because the prey animal involved was such a small snack that the predator left no evidence.
I've seen kookaburras and hornbills with snakes, snow leopards with squirrels, lions with groundhogs, and, in one incident when I still don't quite understand, wolves with the remains of a great horned owl. For some visitors, watching such an incident is a horrifying, traumatic experience, something akin to the killings in the Coliseum of Rome. For others, it's a fascinating display of natural behavior. I always take the position that it's perfectly possible for it to be sad for the prey animal and an excellent opportunity for the predator at the same time.
Woodland Park Zoo put out a very brief Facebook statement on Juniper's behalf. It said, in summary, that while the zoo does what it can to discourage ducks from flying into the bear pool, but it can't always be prevented, and when it does happen... well, bears will be be bears.
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