Imara the rhino briefly escapes enclosure at KC Zoo

Imara, one of the Kansas City Zoo’s four rhinoceroses, briefly escaped her enclosure Monday morning into a behind-the-scenes zookeeper area, a zoo spokesman said.

The rhino was not near public areas, but, following procedure, the zoo still issued a warning for guests to take shelter since a potentially dangerous animal was not where it was supposed to be, said spokesman Josh Hollingsworth.

“She never left the building, and it was always secure,” he said. “It’s pretty rare” for something like this to happen.

Zookeepers were able to get Imara back into her enclosure “fairly quickly,” after she walked out around 10:30 a.m., Hollingsworth said.

Imara has lived at the zoo for several years, he said. She was joined in June by two breeding rhinos from the Portland Zoo.

All of the Kansas City Zoo’s rhinos are of the eastern black subspecies.