A clouded leopard identified as Nova escaped from the Dallas Zoo on Friday, prompting the facility to close for the day. Police are assisting zoo staff in locating the wild cat.
Despite the name, the clouded leopard is a type of wild cat, with this particular specimen weighing only 20 to 25 pounds, described as bigger than a house cat but smaller than a bobcat.
Actual leopards, on the other hand, are big cats, part of the genus Panthera along with lions, tigers, jaguars and snow leopards.
When zoo staff arrived to prepare to open Friday, they found a tear in the mesh surrounding the habitat of the zoo’s two clouded leopards, 4-year-old females Nova and Luna. Nova was missing.
“We have an ongoing situation at the Zoo right now with a Code Blue – that is a non-dangerous animal that is out of its habitat,” the Dallas Zoo tweeted at around 10:20 a.m. local time.
Personnel with the Dallas Police Department arrived to help search for the clouded leopard. Zoo officials suspect that, given that clouded leopards spend a lot of time in trees, Nova is probably still on zoo grounds.
“She’s going to climb a tree, stay out of our way, hunt some squirrels and birds, and hope not to be noticed … thinking like a cat, she likely went straight up to the trees and has not come down,” said Harrison Edell, Dallas Zoo executive vice president of animal care and conservation at a press conference.
Nova is close to her sister Luna, another factor that has led zoo officials to conclude she has not gone far.
“She is likely to stay linked to home as she and her sister Luna are attached at the hip,” Mr. Edell told KTVT-TV, a Fort Worth CBS affiliate.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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