Eddy B: Big lesson in Taronga Zoo’s lion fiasco

When lions escaped a Sydney zoo, Edwina Bartholomew thought it sounded like a line from a kid’s book — and it got her thinking.

What do you do when the lions escape from the zoo?

It sounds like the beginning of a children’s book, but this week it was reality for Taronga Zoo staff who were dealing with some early morning escapees.

Five lions left their enclosure, forcing the Sydney zoo into shutdown and leaving a bunch of resident school kids wishing for a little more snore and a little less roar.

Taronga Zoo where five lions escaped their enclosure. Picture: Channel 7.

It was just like when Edward the Emu went exploring, only with teeth. It got me thinking – what if all of our favourite kid’s books could come to life. What fiction did you hope would become fact when you were little?

I still read to my daughter a book that I loved as a kid, The Friends of Emily Culpepper. Emily loved the company of the postman and milkman so much, she shrunk them and kept them in jars in her kitchen.

When the local policeman eventually came to complain, he ended up in miniature too. I used to imagine who I could shrink and keep at home.

Sounds a little sadistic in hindsight but at the time it made total sense to a six year old.

One of Edwina Bartholomew’s favourite children's books, The Friends of Emily Culpepper.

Perhaps you wished a Tiger would actually come to tea or the Everywhere Bear would end up at your local library.

The idea that a Vegemite sandwich would somehow cure invisibility seemed extremely appealing to this pint-sized person and I still play Pooh sticks in the hope of spotting Piglet when I walk over a bridge.

I suspect the residents of Sydney’s exclusive Mosman could never have dreamt in their wildest imagination that their own version of “We are going on a Bear/Lion Hunt” would end with a tranquilliser gun and the presence of NSW police.

Taronga Zoo has started an inquiry into how the lions escaped.

As Taronga Zoo begins a full blown inquiry, maybe a storybook could save them some time and paperwork too?

With no sign of a giraffe and hippo as an accomplice – a la Madagascar – perhaps the keeper and the unlocked gate from Good Night, Gorilla might be a more plausible explanation.

Get PC Plod on the case. I’m sure he and Noddy will sort it out.

Originally published as Eddy B: Big lesson in Taronga Zoo’s lion fiasco