The case is set for a preliminary hearing later this month.

Police said the charges follow an incident at ZooAmerica North American Wildlife Park in Hersheypark, when a toddler entered a restricted area near a wolf exhibit and was injured after reaching through an enclosure. Derry Township Police said the parents then faced a potential criminal charge after evidence indicated they were distracted and some distance away from the child when the incident occurred, according to a statement.

Authorities said the toddler was hurt shortly before noon Saturday at ZooAmerica. In a statement, police said the child went through a small opening in a wooden barrier perimeter fence and entered an area restricted near the wolf exhibit, where he then reached a chain-link fence enclosure and put his hand through it.

Police said the boy’s injuries appeared consistent with a wolf grabbing onto his hand with its mouth. “From the injuries sustained, it appears as though one of the wolves in the enclosure instinctively and naturally grabbed onto the child’s hand with its mouth,” police said, adding that bystanders intervened and helped pull the child away.

Derry Township Police said evidence showed the parents walked about 25 to 30 feet away from the child to a seating area with benches and appeared to be paying attention to their cellphones when they noticed what was happening. The parents, who live in nearby Lititz, Pennsylvania, await a preliminary hearing later this month on the misdemeanor charge, police said.

Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo said the decision to file a criminal charge was carefully considered. In a phone interview, Chardo said, “We looked at a lot of factors — the age of the child, the circumstances, how diligent you have to be because it’s potentially dangerous,” and said, “We looked at it closely.”

ZooAmerica’s response described the toddler’s actions differently and characterized the wolf’s behavior as brief and investigative rather than forceful or aggressive. In a statement, a spokesperson for the zoo said the boy crawled under an exterior perimeter fence and put his hand through “the primary metal enclosure surrounding the wolf habitat,” adding that a wolf approached and made contact with the child’s hand.

The zoo said the contact matched normal animal behavior toward unfamiliar objects. “This was not a forceful or aggressive action, but rather a brief, investigatory behavior consistent with how wild canines interact with unfamiliar objects in their environment,” the zoo said. The spokesperson also said wolves use their mouths much as humans use hands and that they check out unfamiliar objects by mouthing them.

ZooAmerica said the boy’s injuries were “minor, surface-level,” and that the animal remains in the exhibit and is up to date on vaccinations. Police Chief Garth W. Warner said he was not sure how long the parents’ attention was distracted and noted that a child of that age could find other hazards on their own.

Warner said: “There are plenty of opportunities for a child of that age to hurt themselves on things,” and “Let alone, be left alone, essentially by themselves, where they could get themselves into a situation like this child did.”

Park officials said the incident follows a prior event at Hersheypark last summer in which a lost boy wandering on a monorail line was rescued by a park visitor who climbed onto a building and jumped onto the rails. In that earlier incident, the child was unharmed and reunited with his family.

Messages seeking comment were left with the father’s lawyer Tuesday, and it was not clear who represents the mother.