The parents were looking at their phones when child was bitten by wolf at zoo, police say

A toddler’s parents were 25 feet away from him and looking at their phones when he was bitten by a wolf at a Pennsylvania zoo, police said.

In the incident Saturday at ZooAmerica — part of the Hersheypark entertainment complex — the 17-month-old boy reportedly squeezed through a gap in an outer barrier and reached through the wolf enclosure’s fence.  “It appears as though one of the wolves in the enclosure instinctively and naturally grabbed onto the child’s hand with its mouth,” said the public report from Derry Township police.

It was as bystanders were pulling the child back that the parents, seated on benches, noticed “the commotion,” the police said.

The couple — a 61-year-old man and 43-year-old woman from Lititz, Pa. — will be charged with misdemeanor child endangerment, police said.

The zoo issued a statement describing the child’s injury as minor and the wolf’s “contact” as “consistent with natural animal behavior” and not a sign of aggression. The enclosure houses three gray wolves.