The Dallas Zoo was closed on January 13 after they reported that a Clouded Leopard was missing from its enclosure. And social media stepped up with plenty of comments and suggestions about this news.
In the morning of January 13, employees of the Dallas Zoo showed up to find that a Clouded Leopard named Nova was missing from their habitat. They posted to their social media accounts that the zoo would be closed for the day as they worked to find Nova. With the help of the Dallas PD, zoo employees were able to find Nova at around 4:40 p.m. local time.
She was secured by 5:15 p.m., and further investigations are being done to figure out what happened and how she escaped her enclosure.
While this was all important zoo news, it was social media that was the real star of the day.
Social media had a lot to say about the missing Clouded Leopard at the Dallas Zoo
On Instagram, the SPCA of Texas commented on the post about the zoo being closed and why by asking,
"Have you tried string or balls with bells in them? Our cats love those!! How about some cat nip mice?"
And they were not alone in offering up some cat-centric tips for how to find Nova.
But the real gold came over on Twitter. On Twitter, comments came from accounts such as Jurassic World (they posted eyeballs for their comment), The Portland Pickles account that joked “oh that’s where we left our clouded ,” The Fresno Grizzlies account let everyone know that the Grizzlies are all accounted for, and even Netflix India jumped in with a clip from the movie RRR with animals leaping out of cages and the caption “This yours?”!
👀
— Jurassic World (@JurassicWorld) January 13, 2023
Honestly, social media had a lot of fun with this news and considering the Dallas Zoo was able to find Nova in the zoo near her habitat, we can appreciate the humor that was included in the search. Seeing so many social media accounts chime in with a touch of humor, some suggestions for how one might find a missing cat (maybe not a Clouded Leopard though), and just a general bit of positivity made the entire thing seem less stressful than it likely was for the Dallas zoo employees who were actually working hard to locate their missing animal.
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. pic.twitter.com/XucvBrQO4V
— Dallas Zoo (@DallasZoo) January 13, 2023