Polar bear escapes migrant drama in Calais after an epic journey from Russia

Yorkshire Wildlife Park
Laura Proto14 October 2015

A group of migrants came face-to-face with a polar bear after climbing aboard a lorry transporting it to the UK.

The bear, named Nissan, was on the final stages of his 1,500 journey from Russia to Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster when the bizarre incident unfolded in Calais.

The 22-month old animal had been flown from Moscow Zoo to Frankfurt, Germany, earlier in the week, and was finishing the journey by road.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Wildlife Park confirmed a group of migrants in Calais managed to open the back doors of the lorry transporting the polar bear and three accessed the compartment containing the bear’s cage.

It is believed the three men were inside the truck, which was close to the migrant camp nicknamed The Jungle, for 10 minutes before police released them on Tuesday morning.

Nissan the polar bear's journey from Russia to Yorkshire

1/17

Witness Simon Bridger told The Sun: "It only took 17 seconds before four vaulted the barrier and prised open the truck's back doors.

“They must have had the surprise of their lives. It shows how desperate they are to get to Britain.”

The polar bear was said to be unfazed by the incident but was checked over by support staff before the journey continued.

Nissan has now arrived at the wildlife park and is living with two other bears, named Victor and Pixel, in the Project Polar reserve.

Simon Marsh, animal manager at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, said: “Nissan is settling in really well and it is great to have him here.

“He is in the house at the moment while he gets to know his surroundings, the rangers who will be looking after him and will also get to know Victor and Pixel.

“Every animal takes a different length of time to settle in but we are sure he will be out so that people will be able to see him over the next few weeks.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in