As fire raged nearby, a tiny town's zoo animals were driven to safety

BIG BEAR, Calif. (AP) — With a major wildfire burning near his mountain town east of Los Angeles, Cowboy the barn owl was unaware of the danger and instead having the adventure of a lifetime.

Perched in the front seat of a truck, Cowboy — along with nearly 50 other animals — was being evacuated Sept. 12 from the Big Bear Alpine Zoo in the face of the advancing Line Fire, which blazed through more than 60 square miles (155 square kilometers) of the San Bernardino National Forest.

“He just had the greatest time,” said Mike Barnes, Director of Animal Care and Health at the Living Desert Zoo and Garden in Palm Springs, where Cowboy was being taken. "They said he was probably going to be a handful on the ride down and he was the biggest sweetheart."

In less than 48 hours, two-thirds of the zoo’s animals had been safety evacuated. About a week later on Thursday, Cowboy and the other animals returned home.

“They just had this little kind of holiday, if you will, down here in the desert,” said Heather Downs, animal curator at the Living Desert.

It was the second time that Big Bear Alpine Zoo animals were transported to the Living Desert during a wildfire. Each time, lessons are learned.

The Line Fire spewed out billowing clouds of smoke, turning the skies orange and filling the air with hazardous particles. For birds and smaller mammals, who have higher respiratory rates and are especially sensitive to air quality, they needed to get out of there fast.

The residents of the Big Bear Alpine Zoo are not your usual zoo inhabitants. The sanctuary houses rehabilitated animals that are unable to be released into the wild, many of which are elderly and have injuries.

One of the eagles is blind in one eye after suffering from DDT poisoning, which means staff had to add perches and stumps lower to the ground in its enclosure and move logs that could be tripping hazards, Barnes said. The sanctuary houses many other birds who can't fly, as well as a three-legged kit fox who also needed special accommodations.

Left behind in Big Bear were the bears, bobcats, mountain lions, snow leopards and wolves, who were moved inside where they were protected by HVAC systems and air-scrubbers.

The animals that were transported couldn't go on a full stomach, but zoo staff made sure everyone was fed that night when they arrived at the Living Desert.

There was one arthritic sandhill crane that looked “a little down, a little dumpy,” but a veterinarian determined it was simply grumpy from the change in temperature, Barnes said.

During the evacuation, Big Bear zoo curator Jessica Whiton transported two foxes who left behind a memorable scent in the back of her car, but it was mostly a stress-free experience for them, she said.

“We had them positioned so they could see out the window, and they curled up and watched the drive down the mountain,” Whiton said.

The Living Desert regularly drills and prepares for scenarios where they have to take in or transport large numbers of animals. The nonprofit zoo partners with government agencies to hold confiscated wildlife and help rehabilitate animals, and had more than enough holding space to take in visitors.

Barnes' Thursday began at 6 a.m. as he loaded up an array of birds — cranes, hawks, barn owls and a pelican — and made the winding two-hour drive back to the animals' mountain home.

Back at the Living Desert, Piper the red fox was getting ready for her ride home.

The one-year-old orphaned kit stood on top of her crate and sniffed at it curiously in her enclosure. Staff train the animals to get used to their crates by repeatedly placing treats inside, which is helpful in emergency situations like these when they have to be transported for a long period of time, explained Big Bear animal keeper Alex Palmer.

“Today we're going to be crating her back up, hopefully voluntarily, getting her loaded up in one of our transport shuttles and getting her back up to the zoo,” Palmer said. “She'll be a lot happier, a lot more comfortable hopefully, and back with her neighboring foxes.”

Alex Palmer, an animal keeper from the Big Bear Alpine Zoo, trains Piper, a red fox evacuated due to the Line Fire, to get comfortable with a crate before transporting her from the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Piper, a red fox evacuated from the Big Bear Alpine Zoo due to the Line Fire, walks out of a crate during training to become comfortable with it before being transported back to the zoo from the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Alex Palmer, an animal keeper from the Big Bear Alpine Zoo, carries a crate to prepare for transporting Piper, a red fox evacuated due to the Line Fire, back to the zoo from the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Animal care curator Heather Down, left, and Mike Barnes, director of animal care and health, transport a fox, evacuated from the Big Bear Alpine Zoo due to the Line Fire, back to the zoo from the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Zoo personnel load a crate holding a fox, evacuated due to the Line Fire, to transport it back to the Big Bear Alpine Zoo from the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Animal care curator Heather Down, left, and Mike Barnes, director of animal care and health, share a light moment while transporting a fox, evacuated from the Big Bear Alpine Zoo due to the Line Fire, back to the zoo from the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv overnight, leaving 16 people injured by shattered glass, the Israeli military said Saturday, days after Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi rebels who have been launching missiles in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Another 14 people sustained minor injuries as they rushed to shelters when air raid sirens sounded before dawn Saturday, the military said.

The Houthis issued a statement on Telegram saying they had aimed a hypersonic ballistic missile at a military target, which they did not identify.

“A flash of light, a blow and we fell to the ground. Big mess, broken glasses all over the place,” said Bar Katz, a resident of a damaged building.

The attack came after Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, and port city of Hodeida killed at least nine people Thursday. The Israeli strikes were in response to a Houthi long-range missile that hit an Israeli school building. The Houthis also claimed a drone strike targeting an unspecified military target in central Israel on Thursday.

Israel's military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and drones during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Houthis have also attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and say they won’t stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli strikes Thursday caused “considerable damage” to the Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports that will lead to the "immediate and significant reduction in port capacity,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The Hodeida port has been key for food shipments into Yemen in its decade-long civil war.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said both sides’ attacks risk further escalation in the region.

Mourners in Gaza held funerals for 19 people — 12 of them children — killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and overnight.

One strike hit a residential building in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least seven Palestinians, including five children and one woman, and injuring 16 others, health officials said.

In Gaza City, a strike on a house killed 12 people, including seven children and two women, according to Al-Ahli Hospital where the bodies were taken.

One man cradled a tiny shroud-wrapped body as mourners gathered at the hospital in Gaza City. Women comforted each other as they wept.

Overall, Gaza's Health Ministry said 21 people had been killed over the past 24 hours.

More than 45,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, when a Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,200 people and triggered the 14-month war. The health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said more than half of fatalities are women and children.

Israel faces heavy international criticism over the unprecedented levels of civilian deaths in Gaza. It says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in residential areas.

Gaza's Health Ministry issued an urgent appeal for medical and food supplies to be delivered to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in largely isolated northern Gaza, while the hospital director described conditions as dire, as Israel's military presses its latest offensive.

The ministry reported continuous gunfire and Israeli shelling near the hospital, saying “shells have struck the third floor and the hospital’s entrances, creating a state of panic.”

Hospital director Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh said the facility faced “severe shortages” and asserted that requests for essential medical supplies and ways to maintain oxygen, water and electricity systems "have largely gone unmet.”

He said 72 wounded people were being treated at the hospital.

“Food is very scarce, and we cannot provide meals for the wounded," Safiyeh added. “We are urgently calling on anyone who can provide supplies to help us.”

Aid groups have said Israeli military operations and armed gangs have hindered their ability to distribute aid.

The Israeli military organization dealing with humanitarian affairs for Gaza said Saturday it had led an operation delivering thousands of food packages, flour and water to the Beit Hanoun area in the north. It said trucks with the U.N. World Food Program transported them to distribution centers in the area Friday.

Iran on Saturday said unknown gunmen had killed a local staffer of the Iranian embassy in Syria, the official IRNA news agency said.

Its report quoted foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei as saying “terrorists” opened fire on Davood Bitaraf’s car last Sunday. It did not say what he did with the embassy.

Baghaei said Iran considers Syria’s interim government responsible for finding and prosecuting those behind the killing. Iran had been a key ally of recently ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Majdal Shams, Golan Heights, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat refugee camp are prepared for the funeral prayer outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Men pray over the bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat refugee camp during a funeral prayer outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat arrive at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital before their funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

An Israeli soldier observes the site where the missile launched from Yemen landed Jaffa district, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum)