They finally spotted spot her!
Nova, the clouded leopard that escaped through a “suspicious” hole in her enclosure at the Dallas Zoo Friday morning — prompting the animal park to close as police rushed to find her — was found safe, officials said.
The 4-year-old leopard was located at around 4:40 p.m. local time “very near the original habitat, and teams were able to safely secure her just before 5:15 p.m.,” the zoo tweeted.
Zoo officials declared a “code blue” to signal a “non-dangerous animal” had slipped out of the habitat after a staffer discovered the feckless feline missing earlier in the day.
“Given the nature of these animals, we believe the animal is still on grounds and hiding,” the zoo said in a tweet Friday morning. “Our focus right now is on locating the animal.”
Nova, who weighs roughly 25 pounds, escaped through a tear in her enclosure’s mesh fence — which police later said was likely made on purpose.
Investigators believe the rip was an “intentional act” to damage the exhibit, Sgt. Warren Mitchell of the Dallas Police Department told FOX News 4 reporter Blake Hanson.
As the wild chase unfolded, officers were “onsite assisting with the search efforts,” according to the zoo.
The on-the-lam leopard lives in the enclosure with her sister, Luna, and was believed to still be on zoo grounds as of Friday afternoon, zoo officials said.
“This is not a tiger or a lion,” Harrison Edell, the zoo’s executive vice president of animal care and conservation, said at a press conference Friday. “If anything, she’s real nervous and afraid of people.”
She mostly lives on treetops, he said.
“It looks like we’re bird watching, but we are hunting for a leopard,” Edell said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
As of 1 a.m. Friday, Nova was accounted for but was missing during a head count of the animals later Friday morning, he said.
“We’ll be sharing another update later early this evening,” the zoo tweeted at around 4 p.m. Friday. “If you think you see [her]… please do not approach.”
Nova and her sister came to the animal park in 2021 from the Houston Zoo, where they were born.
Clouded leopards, which are native to Southeast Asia, can grow up to 50 pounds and 4 feet long with sharp, dexterous paws for gripping branches, according to the National Zoo’s website.
They can be aggressive with each other but are generally social in captivity and have rarely, if ever, harmed humans in that setting.
It’s not the first time the Dallas Zoo had to scramble to catch a tenant that escaped from an enclosure, according to the Dallas Morning News.
A charging gorilla was killed by cops in 2004 after it escaped from the zoo and injured three people, including a toddler, who was bitten on his head and chest and thrown against a wall.
