We're Not Lying: Lion Captured After Brief Escape Near Tampa

SPRING HILL (CBSMiami) - Well, this is something you don't get to write everyday...authorities in the Tampa area had to capture a lion that briefly got loose Friday morning.

Yes, a lion.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office said Friday that it assisted state wildlife authorities in locating a lion that apparently got loose from a Spring Hill wildlife sanctuary.

The lion was caught and tranquilized shortly after escaping.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Gary Morse says the 7-year-old female lion will be returned to an "inspected, secure cage" at the Survival Outreach Sanctuary.

Morse says the lion escaped Friday from an inner enclosure at the Spring Hill wildlife sanctuary. Authorities set up a perimeter around the property while they tried to determine whether the lion also had escaped through an outer enclosure.

Messages left at the sanctuary were not immediately returned.

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