Grizzly Bear Shatters Barrier at Minnesota Zoo | WDAZ

Officials say the bear broke only one of five layers of laminated safety glass and that the public was never in danger.

The exhibit was closed.

The animal smashed the rock repeatedly into the glass as visitors looked on in horror at the Minnesota Zoo.

Above the bear from the Minnesota Zoo who slammed the rock pictured only minutes before the incident.

A few curious visitors watched the sight about 9:30 a.m. Monday, when the bear was bouncing a rock along the glass of the Russia’s Grizzly Coast exhibit, said Tony Fisher, director of animal collections for the Apple Valley zoo. “He didn’t know what he was doing”.

Fisher said Kenai is “usually the clown out there, fooling around in the water”, he told the Star Tribune.

“It had to weigh 50 pounds, and did a chest pass with that rock just like Wes Unseld used to do with the basketball into the glass”. “And while many people were standing there, he slammed it against the glass several times”, Ficker said.

‘For the record, I’m very glad my kids were not there when this bear did this.

Rocks and other items the bears can lift up are supposed to be secured in place, a zoo official told the Star Tribune.

He added: “We’ll have to go back through the exhibit and anchor down anything they can lift”.

But the Alaskan grizzly, named Kenai, one of three orphaned bears at the Minneapolis zoo and weighing about 800 pounds, was being playful and not aggressive, according to zookeepers.

They can be particularly unsafe to humans if humans come in between them and their offspring or if they are surprised, according to the National Geographic.