That small-town blues will need to have got him!
A bear that was born in the Big Apple has been confined to the Saint Louis Zoo after it escaped its outdoor habitat twice this month.
4-year-old Ben proved he was smarter than the average bear when he broke free from the River’s Edge “dipping exhibit” on February 7.
“Ben got out by fidgeting with the steel mesh in the right spot of the outdoor habitat, causing the cable to fall down, allowing him to get out” – Zoo he said in an announcement last week.
Missouri Zoo staff “made the habitat even safer by adding 450-pound stainless-steel cargo clips,” the zoo said.
But even that wasn’t enough to stop the “young and adventurous” Andean bear, who was born at Queens Zoo and sent to St. Louis in 2021.
On Thursday, Ben crawled through a hole in the chain link fence where it’s attached to supports, KMOV4 reported.
![Ben Bear.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/NYPICHPDPICT000007303760.jpg?w=1024)
Visitors were taken to safety in “various locked facilities” while staff searched the area for the escapee after Ben went missing around 1 p.m., the zoo said.
About 50 minutes later, the creature was spotted about 100 feet from the fence and shot with a tranquilizer dart, KMOV said.
“This is simply the second time in the history of getting this particular habitat,” zoo director Michael Macek told the station. “Ben won’t come out again until we’re absolutely sure he cannot get through the net again.”
Andean bears are also often known as spectacled bears due to the unique individualized markings on their faces which will resemble glasses.
They’re the only bear species native to South America and live in mountain forests stretching from Bolivia to Venezuela.
They’re listed as “vulnerable” – one step away from endangered – by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland, with a declining population of only 2,500 to 10,000 mature animals left in the wild.
Ben was moved to the Saint Louis Zoo on the suggestion of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Andean Bear Species Survival Plan.
After relocating, Queens Zoo announced that his parents, Nicole and Bouba, he had two more cubsbringing the total variety of their offspring at the moment to five.