Lioness Back Safe, Sound At Zoo

A 450-pound lion was shot with a tranquilizer dart and captured in good shape Wednesday, two days after escaping from a roadside zoo near Walt Disney World.

Wildlife agents in a helicopter spotted the 2-1/2-year-old lion in a swampy, wooded area just a few hundred yards from her cage at the JungleLand Zoo. A veterinarian then moved in and hit it with the dart.

Born and raised in captivity, the female lion didn’t roam very far.

“All it has ever known was that cage in which it was confined in,” Capt. Gary Phelps of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission said of Nala.

“Having been fed every day at 5 o’clock and warmed when it was cold, I think that’s what kept the cat right here.”

When the lion saw the veterinarian, Dr. James Barnett, she hissed and then ran to hide under some other bushes. Barnett missed once, but his second shot hit her in the hip.

It took the lion about five minutes to become sedated. When she dozed off, Barnett injected her with more tranquilizer.

Several men, using a ladder as a stretcher, carried the lion out of the swamp to a pickup truck, which took her back to her cage at JungleLand.

The lion escaped into the woods Monday while her handlers tried to fix her cage to raise her above ground flooded by days of rain. The lion was spotted several times, but each time managed to elude capture.

Officials described the 2-1/2-year-old lioness as hand-raised, declawed and very sociable, but they said the animal could react violently if provoked.