LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Newly-released video shows state wildlife officials trying to capture a black bear that wandered into the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World last month, an incident that forced the temporary closure of several rides.
The 150-pound bear can be seen about 35 feet up in a tree between the Magic Kingdom’s railroad tracks and a waterway, known as the Rivers of America, used by the theme park’s riverboat attraction.
“Hopefully we can get this bear out of here quickly,” said Rick Brown, an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission who captured the video with a body-worn camera on Sept. 18.
A member of Disney’s Wildlife Management Team told Brown that company officials witnessed the bear inside the berm circling the Magic Kingdom earlier that morning.
“It was right along the railroad tracks, which terrifies us because that gives it access to the entire park. So we hazed it,” the Disney employee said. “It went this way and up into the tree.”
The Disney employee said the company has a state permit to trap bears and receives routine training from FWC on how to chase bears away from populated areas with air horns, paintball guns and slingshots.
Disney workers with access to those tools were positioned along the railroad tracks on both sides of the bear’s location as the park opened to visitors that morning, the employee said.
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Attractions in the northwest corner of the Magic Kingdom, including the Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, were closed for several hours as state wildlife officials tried to catch the bear.
Although FWC generally recommends giving bears space and allowing them to move along on their own, the state agency decided it was necessary to capture the bear by temporarily putting it to sleep with chemicals shot from a dart gun.
“He’s in a portion of the tree that’s going to be easy to dart,” Brown told a colleague by phone. “But if he falls straight down, he’s going to be falling into the water.”
FWC biologists were prepared to jump in the water to rescue the bear from drowning if it landed in the river and fell asleep, the video shows.
Using the theme park’s Indian Village as a staging ground, Disney employees assembled large nets in front of teepees as animatronic humans and animals were in motion around them.
An audio recording of a barking dog that played over the park’s loudspeakers threatened to make the bear capture more challenging until it was turned off.
“That dog has got to stop barking,” said one Disney employee. “He ain’t going to come down!”
As final preparations were underway to capture the bear, FWC officials joked with Disney employees about the unusual location inside a theme park.
“I think he wants to see the Country Bear Jamboree,” quipped one state officer.
“No ticket, no entry. You don’t get free rides,” another FWC replied.
Using an air-powered rifle, an FWC officer shot the bear in its hind leg with a chemical dart around 10:30 a.m., the video shows.
Instead of falling into the water, the bear remained on dry ground and scurried off deeper into the woods.
“Let’s give him 20 minutes,” said Brown. “Let him calm down and fall asleep. If he feels safe, he’ll lay down.”
Once the bear was no longer a danger to people, FWC officers and members of Disney’s Wildlife Team climbed through heavy vegetation in search of the sleeping animal.
FWC officers located the bear in thick brush just before 1: p.m., an FWC spokesperson said. The officer’s video camera stopped recording before the bear was found.
The state agency later transported the bear to the Ocala National Forest where it was safely released.
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