Crowds at Children's Grand Park
Escape Chaos as Visitors Flock to See Zebras
Out in Enclosure Since Two Days Ago
On the afternoon of the 30th, the herbivore village at the Children's Grand Park Zoo in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, was bustling with citizens eager to see the zebra 'Sero,' who had caused a zoo escape commotion just a week earlier, Yonhap News reported on the 31st.
Although the herbivore village's viewing path was blocked due to fence replacement work and barricades were installed, citizens stretched their necks from the deck across the way and repeatedly called out Sero's name to catch a glimpse from afar.
On the afternoon of the 30th, a zebra walks around the enclosure at Seoul Grand Park Zoo. [Photo by Yonhap News]
Unfazed by the intense attention directed at him, Sero leisurely strolled around the enclosure, stood still staring blankly at the visitors, and even rolled on the ground.
On the afternoon of the 23rd, Sero broke through his pen and escaped from the Children's Grand Park Zoo, roaming around downtown Seoul before being caught and returned after about three hours. Since then, he stayed indoors to rest and began coming out to the enclosure starting on the 29th.
Inside the wooden fence that Sero broke during his escape, a temporary green metal fence over 2 meters high was installed.
Jo Kyung-wook, head of the Animal Welfare Team at Children's Grand Park, told Yonhap News in an interview, "When we first opened the enclosure door, Sero hesitated, seemingly curious about the new temporary fence, but soon came out and wandered around here and there. He is currently eating well and has almost fully recovered to his previous condition."
After the escape incident, Children's Grand Park advanced the schedule for facility repairs originally planned for the first half of the year to prevent recurrence, changing the fence material from wood to metal and increasing its height. The fence and viewing deck replacement work is scheduled to be completed by the 30th of next month.
Sero, a male zebra born in 2019, previously broke the wooden deck installed around his pen and escaped from the Children's Grand Park Zoo in Neung-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 23rd. He was captured after wandering on roads and residential areas. The park explained that Sero began to rebel due to loneliness after losing his parents one after another and being left alone in the barn.
Sero is planned to be paired with a female zebra of the same age from another zoo next year and live together at the Children's Grand Park Zoo.
Meanwhile, Sero's 'escape story' became a hot topic not only domestically but also overseas.
Netizens worldwide, feeling sympathy for Sero, created various images to comfort and support him using artificial intelligence (AI). These images depict imaginary scenes of Sero active outside the zoo, cheering for the zebra trapped in captivity.
According to AI startup Lion Rocket, netizens both domestic and international generated over 1,250 images related to Sero in just one day on 'Sporky,' an AI image generation workflow web platform.
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