Dallas Zoo finds missing clouded leopard on zoo grounds - CNN

CNN  — 

A clouded leopard whose disappearance prompted the closure of the Dallas Zoo was recovered Friday night, zoo officials said.

“We are thrilled to study we located clouded leopard Nova on-grounds astatine the Zoo this day astatine approximated 4:40 p.m.,” a zoo spokesperson said successful a written statement. “She was located precise adjacent the archetypal habitat, and teams were capable to safely unafraid her conscionable earlier 5:15 p.m.”

Nova was discovered missing aft zoo workers discovered that a obstruction astir her enclosure had been cut. Dallas Police are investigating, calling the harm to the enclosure “an intentional act.”

“It is our content that this was an intentional act, truthful we person started a transgression investigation,” said Dallas Police Sergeant Warren Mitchell astatine a quality conference. “The obstruction it escaped from was intentionally cut.”

The Dallas Zoo said Nova was being fixed a veterinary exam Friday evening, but determination were nary archetypal signs of injury.

The zoo was closed Friday arsenic workers and constabulary searched for the missing feline. “It was wide that this opening was not a situation failure, it wasn’t an grounds failure, and it wasn’t keeper error,” said Dallas Zoo CEO Gregg Hudson.

Clouded leopards are categorized arsenic “vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature owed to situation nonaccomplishment and poaching. There are astir 10,000 of the felines near successful the chaotic crossed southeast Asia, according to the World Wildlife Fund. The leopards typically measurement betwixt 11 and 20 kilos, oregon 24 and 44 pounds, according to the WWF.

In March, the zoo posted a video connected its YouTube transmission of its 2 clouded leopard sisters, Nova and Luna. In the video, the zoo’s subordinate curator of mammals, Lisa Van Slett, explained that clouded leopards are unsocial among different feline taxon due to the fact that they are arboreal, spending overmuch of their clip successful trees. The sisters arrived astatine the Dallas Zoo from the Houston Zoo, she said.

Zoological manager Audra C. added successful the video that small is known astir the “amazing species” successful the chaotic owed to their “aloof personalities.”