By Martin Weil and Clarence Williams
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 16, 2008

A venturesome 7-year-old boy who went where no visitors ought go at the National Zoo yesterday received an electric shock and a painful lesson about what keeps many animals in their enclosures.

After going behind a railing at the anteater exhibition, the boy reached over a wall, touched a 110-volt wire and "got a small shock," zoo spokesman John Gibbons said.

An ambulance was called, but the boy did not appear to be seriously harmed, and his father declined to have him taken to a hospital, Gibbons said. He "was fine," he said.

Gibbons said the zoo's three giant anteaters were in their indoor quarters in the zoo's lower section, near Lemur Island, about 5:50 p.m. when the incident occurred.

The boy, whose name was not given, went under a railing that marks the limit of public access to the exhibition, Gibbons said.

Probably, he said, the boy was "just being a curious, eager 7-year-old," who "ran over to see what was on the other side."

Gibbons said he doubted that the boy wanted to enter the sunken anteater enclosure. But he touched at least one of three parallel wires that line the inside of the wall, and recoiled, Gibbons said.

In addition to helping keep many zoo animals in their enclosures, the wires help keep out squirrels, raccoons and the like, Gibbons said.

He said that in his four years at the zoo, the incident was the first of its kind. It occurred near closing time and few visitors saw it, he said.