A wolf escaped from its enclosure at the Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton on Sunday morning for about half an hour.

Employees rounded up all the zoo’s visitors and herded them into buildings to wait until the animal was caught.

Bernie Gallant, head of the animal care service at the zoo, said for the most part visitors seemed unfazed by the wolf's unauthorized walk-about.

“They were very calm and very understanding. The ones I heard [from] were kind of happy the way we were making sure their safety was paramount, so they’re not in danger,” he said.

“I don’t know of any zoo that has never had things like this happen. But at Magnetic Hill we’ve never had a wolf escape. We’ve never had a cat escape. But we have had a donkey escape or a turkey escape.”

Sunday was opening day for the winter season.