A bear at the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls was tranquilized on Tuesday after the bear was not in its intended area.

Zoo president Elizabeth A. Whealy said the zoo underwent a "Code 1" the bear was "not where they wanted it to be."

The bear, which was identified in a tweet from the zoo as a brown bear cub named Juneau, was still in containment and never left, Whealy said. The bear was tranquilized and moved back to the place where the zoo wanted it, she said.

She said the bear was not in a public space.

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Thomas Meier and Lauren Renwick said they'd been walking away from the giraffe exhibit when they saw a zookeeper sprinting through the zoo -- followed by someone pulling up on a golf cart and telling them they needed to get inside a nearby bathroom.

Renwick said it was made clear to them that they were not in danger, and they stayed in the bathroom for about an hour until they were given an all-clear around 1:15 p.m.

They had gone into the zoo hoping it would be a quick trip, Renwick said — but her 1-year-old son Hunter didn't seem to mind.

"He still had a blast," Renwick said.

Chuck Hewitt, an Oscar Howe Elementary parent, was chaperoning a field trip at the zoo and nearby picnic at the park for his second grade daughter when teachers came running up to his daughter's teacher and whispered about the situation in her ear, he said.

"We were just assuming we were going to walk around the zoo with the second-graders, and then we had the excitement," Hewitt said.

Students never even entered the zoo, Sioux Falls School District spokeswoman DeeAnn Konrad said. Teachers and parents escorted the children back to the playground as a safety precaution, Hewitt said.

"Once we got the kids back to the playground, we began wondering where the bear really was and if it could climb the fence," Hewitt said.

That's when teachers asked parents to calmly gather the three or four children they were in charge of, and get back on the school buses. Luckily, the buses weren't too far away.

By this time though, children had overheard talk from teachers and intercoms at the zoo announcing the emergency, and some expressed their fears for parents standing outside of the bus as they waited to see what to do next, Hewitt said.

The parents reassured the children by telling them they could calmly walk to their cars if need be to be safe, he said. Zoo officials did a good job of communicating with the public, he said.

"I never felt like there was an immediate danger," Hewitt said. "The zoo announced every five minutes that they had an an emergency, to please shelter in place and that this is not a drill. ...Needless to say, it was a pretty exciting day for the kids."

By the time the zoo reopened, the children had to return to school to go home for the day, he said.

"It just wasn't feasible (to go back in)," he said. "But, they had a nice picnic, went to the park and then got to hang out on the bus to see if this bear was going to climb the fence."

Overall, things worked out well and he was pleased with how teachers were able to keep everyone calm, he said.

The "Fortress of the Bears" exhibit opened at the Great Plains Zoo in June 2018.

The project renovated and expanded one of the zoo’s oldest and most popular exhibits to provide enhanced viewing and educational opportunities, the zoo said at the time.