

A Canadian zoo has been fined NZ$550 for taking a bear through a drive-through.

Discovery Wildlife Park in Alberta posted a video on social media of a one-year-old bear named Berkley leaning out the window of a truck and enjoying an ice cream cone at a Dairy Queen.

The bear appears remarkably calm, taking dainty licks of the vanilla ice cream as the restaurant's owner holds the cone out the drive-through window.

FACEBOOK/DISCOVERY WILDLIFE PARK Berkley the bear enjoys an ice cream in the drive-through of a Canadian restaurant.

While the zoo owner said the bear was chained and they visited the restaurant outside of opening hours, the video caught the attention of authorities, who laid two charges against the Discovery Wildlife Park.

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Owners Doug Bos and Debbie Rowland plead guilty to two charges of taking the bear out without informing authorities, with one related to the ice cream visit and the other for a previous trip out from the zoo in 2017.

Bos admitted to media outside court they had made a mistake, but thanked Alberta Fish and Wildlife for doing their job.

"I'm happy that Fish and Wildlife did this because it proves that there are strict rules and regulations to operating a zoo in Alberta and, when you make a mistake, you have to pay for it," Bos told The Star.

He added that taking animals out of the zoo wasn't unusual, with bears leaving the park for visits to schools and parties.