Watch Busch Wildlife Sanctuary pack up two bears and a gator for 5-mile move to new digs

Sonja Isger, Palm Beach Post
·1 min read
Christen Mason watches veterinarian Dr. Heather Johnston of Harmony Animal Hospital sedate a black bear that was moved from the old Busch Wildlife Sanctuary to the new one in Jupiter Farms, Florida Florida on September 18, 2023.
Christen Mason watches veterinarian Dr. Heather Johnston of Harmony Animal Hospital sedate a black bear that was moved from the old Busch Wildlife Sanctuary to the new one in Jupiter Farms, Florida Florida on September 18, 2023.

JUPITER — A roughly 5-mile move to a larger, fancier facility is certainly an appealing prospect. But when you're the staff at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, packing up and going is guaranteed to be little tricky — two bears and a gator, for example, don't just get in the back of the station wagon.

In the wee hours of Monday, those special sanctuary residents, black bears Tehya and Kiona, and Freddy the-40-year-old-alligator, were shuffled along in careful, well-planned fashion involving big cages and significant doses of tranquilizers deployed at just the right time.

As the staff worked to make the move as swift and safe as possibly, the three residents were escorted away from what has been the sanctuary's home for 40 years just west of Central Boulevard and south of Indiantown Road in Jupiter.

When the sun came up, they woke on Busch Wildlife Sanctuary's new Jupiter Farms campus — an $18 million project complete with open-air amphitheater, larger enclosures for the sanctuary's valued residents and their own hurricane shelter in which to hunker during storms.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Busch Wildlife Sanctuary moves bears, alligator to Jupiter Farms