On Friday, January 13, the Dallas zoo in Texas reported that one of their clouded leopards, Nova, had escaped from their enclosure, leading to the zoo being closed for the day. The Dallas zoo posted about the missing clouded leopard on social media, with plenty of people chiming in about the kitty. However, by the end of the day, the zoo reported finding Nova near her enclosure.
And now we know exactly how they found their clouded leopard…It’s all thanks to a squirrel.
According to a post on Facebook, the Dallas zoo broke down exactly what went into not only discovering that the leopard had gone missing, but also what happened during the search of the zoo. However, the best part of the entire breakdown is when they talk about how they actually discovered where Nova was in the zoo.
The Dallas zoo found their missing clouded leopard with the help of a squirrel
Apparently, Nova was found only about 100 yards from her enclosure. And what tipped off the zoo workers looking for her was a squirrel who was just not having it with a Clouded Leopard in their home. In the Facebook post the Dallas zoo explained that,
"She [Nova] was starting to emerge from a hunkered-down hiding spot, and staff say a rogue squirrel that was being overly vocal tipped them off to an area to focus their search."
Now we don’t know about you, but we cracked up laughing at the picture portrayed by the zoo. After all it took a squirrel being annoyed by the clouded leopard to find the zoo animal. And if you have ever seen a squirrel annoying a dog you already know they can kick up a fuss. It just makes sense that it was thanks to a squirrel that the Dallas zoo was able to officially spot Nova and get her back to her enclosure after a visit with the zoo’s medical team.
We are just happy that this turned out to be good news for the Dallas zoo and their leopards. And knowing that they were able to safely get Nova back to her enclosure means that we can take enjoyment from everything that went down including a squirrel kicking up a fuss and the social media reaction to the news.