Visitors at the National Zoo on Wednesday were nonplussed by reports of an escaped bobcat possibly roaming nearby, but none were as unfazed as Antonio Le, who pictured the feline predator as a cartoon.
“It’s just a big kitty, like Garfield,” said Mr. Le, a Rockville resident who takes frequent strolls through the zoo.
Perhaps luckily for him and others, Ollie, the zoo’s 7-year-old female bobcat, was found and captured on zoo grounds that afternoon after a two daylong stint outside her enclosure.
“We’re just over the moon happy to tell you guys that we have Ollie the bobcat back in home at the zoo right now,” a relieved Craig Saffoe, curator of great cats at the zoo, told reporters Wednesday evening. “We found her thanks to a tip from a visitor who just reported to some staff at our bird house that they saw the bobcat move across the walkway.”
Ollie had gone missing Monday, prompting a search team of zookeepers, police officers and rescue experts from the D.C. Humane Rescue Alliance to scour neighborhoods around Rock Creek Park. Thirteen nearby schools canceled outside recess on Tuesday.
Wednesday morning, zoo officials suspended the search amid a fruitless effort to even spot Ollie in the park.
But the bobcat had never actually left zoo property, turning up behind the bird house building less than a half-mile from her exhibit. Zoo personnel captured Ollie about 15 minutes after setting traps for the feline.
Mr. Saffoe said he and his staff had believed Ollie would want to return to her familiar habitat, where she’s lived for the past five years.
“She didn’t stray far from home,” the great cat curator said. “She wanted to go out and have a little bit of fun, see what it was like on the outside. Then she came right back.”
But that morning, he and his colleagues had not been optimistic of retrieving the elusive cat.
“You start to lose some faith, because at this point the world is her oyster and you just don’t know,” Mr. Scaffoe said.
Ollie returned unscathed, save for a small cut on her paw, which zoo officials said did not need treatment. She is currently in the care of zoo veterinarians, who will ensure Ollie is ready to rejoin the two male bobcats that share her enclosure.
During Ollie’s short-lived vacation from her enclosure, the chances of her being a danger to anything besides rats, birds and other small animals were low, Mr. Scaffoe said.
Bobcats are not aggressive to humans and are native to much of North America, including the Greater Washington area. School officials lifted the ban on outdoor recess Wednesday after hearing from zoo leaders that “we are no longer in imminent danger.”
Zoo visitors like Mr. Le certainly did not feel at risk while wandering near the blocked bobcat enclosure.
“I like cats; I’m not scared,” he said. “I mean, it’s friendly, right? It lived at the zoo.”
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