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Nova, a 3- to 4-year-old female, had been reported missing shortly
after 10 a.m. local time, prompting a "Code Blue" alert, which
notifies all staff that a non-dangerous animal is missing. The big
cat was ultimately found close to its mesh-enclosed home, the zoo
said.
"We are thrilled to report we located clouded leopard Nova
on-grounds at the Zoo this afternoon at approximated 4:40 p.m. She
was located very near the original habitat, and teams were able to
safely secure her just before 5:15 p.m.," the zoo said in a
statement posted to social media.
Zoo staff and local police spent much of the day searching the
106-acre (43-hectare) park for the escapee, predicting that Nova
would stay close to home due to the territorial nature of cats --
and a fence surrounding the entire perimeter of the grounds.
"More likely than not when she's scared she's going to climb a tree,
stay out of our way, hunt some squirrels and birds and hope not to
be noticed," Harrison Edell, the zoo's vice president for animal
care and conservation, said earlier in the day. It was not
immediately clear if Nova had been found in a tree.
Edell said it unknown exactly when the cat made its getaway, but
appeared to have slipped through a tear in the mesh fence of her
habitat sometime overnight. The second clouded leopard, Nova's
sister, did not escape, he said.
He said it was not clear how the mesh became torn but added it was
too soon to rule out human involvement.
Clouded leopards, so-called because of their cloud-like fur
patterns, are in decline in the wild where they inhabit dense
forests in the foothills of the Himalayas, Southeast Asia and South
China.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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