As clouded leopard search continues, Dallas Zoo says space pets are at no ‘higher threat’

The Dallas Zoo closed Friday due to “a critical scenario” involving a lacking clouded leopard.

The zoo stated it issued a “code blue” at 10:20 a.m., including the Dallas Police Division was onsite looking for 4-year-old Nova, who was unaccounted for when workers checked her habitat earlier Friday morning.

“Given the character of those animals, we consider the animal remains to be on grounds and hiding,” the zoo wrote in a tweet.

The zoo additionally careworn that the cat, who weighs about 25 kilos, is just not a hazard to folks. The animal can also be not “a higher threat for pets” than different animals native to city North Texas, the zoo stated.

“However should you really feel extra snug bringing pets inside, please do,” the zoo wrote in a tweet.

Seeking to the timber

Harrison Edell, the zoo’s govt vice chairman for animal care and conservation, stated throughout a information convention that zoo workers discovered a tear within the mesh surrounding Nova’s enclosure and are “spending numerous time with binoculars” searching for her in close by timber.

Dallas police offered infrared drones to help within the search, and Irving police had been additionally serving to with drone tools. Dallas SWAT was deployed as a precaution, police stated.

“Extra doubtless than not … she’s going to climb a tree, keep out of our method, hunt some squirrels and birds and hope to not be seen,” he stated, including that Nova doesn’t pose a risk to people.

Edell declined to touch upon specifics of when the zoo found Nova was lacking, however stated the workers checks enclosures a number of occasions a day, beginning with a head rely of each animal “very first thing within the morning.”

If Nova makes it off zoo grounds, Edell stated nobody ought to try to seize her, however as a substitute ought to ship images and tricks to the zoo at 469-554-7501, info@dallaszoo.com or on Twitter.

Andrine Kolby and Will Barron, each 21, had been planning to go to the zoo collectively Friday, however stated on the best way there, as they had been trying to purchase tickets, they came upon the zoo was closed.

”It’s not harmful, so I’m certain they’ll discover it and it’ll be OK. We’ll should go one other day,” Kolby stated, including whereas she wasn’t anticipating all the animals to be outdoors because of the chilly, she was nonetheless excited to go.

With an abrupt change of plans, Barron stated they had been planning to go downtown and improvise.

Within the east Oak Cliff neighborhood beside the zoo, canines, huge and small, had been of their yards and a number of other home cats could possibly be seen roaming outdoors.

Maria Lopez was out Friday afternoon tending to a number of chickens and a turkey in her yard. Whereas a number of of the smaller chickens made their method by the fence lined with hen wire, Lopez stated she wasn’t very apprehensive in regards to the leopard attending to her fowl. The birds, she stated, don’t go away their enclosure usually.

From Houston to Dallas

The Dallas Zoo had by no means housed clouded leopards earlier than September 2021, when two sisters, Nova and Luna, made their public debut after a transfer from the Houston Zoo.

Clouded leopards — named for the big, cloudlike spots that cowl their our bodies — stand solely a pair ft tall and are a number of ft lengthy, Sara Bjerklie, an assistant zoological supervisor on the zoo, previously told The Dallas Morning News.

Bjerklie stated they’re nonetheless as fierce as larger predators, with canine enamel that may develop to greater than 2 inches lengthy, and the biggest canine-to-skull ratio of all cats.

Of the 2 leopards, Bjerklie described Nova as extra “standoffish.”