Vulture Useless at Dallas Zoo Soon after Leopard Missing, Police Investigating

• The demise of an endangered vulture at the Dallas Zoo is not believed to be from all-natural will cause.
• About a week prior, a clouded leopard at the zoo went missing for quite a few several hours in advance of being observed.
• Law enforcement reported a suspicious reduce was built in the leopard enclosure, as nicely as that of some monkeys.

Police are investigating following a series of strange activities at the Dallas Zoo.

First, a clouded leopard escaped from her encampment, which experienced a “suspicious” tear in it. Up coming, a different lower was discovered in an enclosure containing langurs, a kind of monkey indigenous to Africa and Asia. Now, a vulture has died less than what the zoo is calling “unconventional” instances.

“This weekend, our team uncovered that just one of the endangered vultures in our Wilds of Africa habitats experienced died. The animal treatment crew is heartbroken above this incredible loss,” the Dallas Zoo said in a statement on Saturday.

“The situation of the death are abnormal, and the death does not seem to be from natural results in,” the assertion ongoing, including: “In the past 7 days, we have added supplemental cameras in the course of the Zoo and elevated onsite stability patrols during the right away hrs. We will carry on to put into practice and develop our protection and protection measures to whatsoever stage essential to continue to keep our animals and employees safe.”

—Dallas Zoo (@DallasZoo) January 22, 2023

The zoo did not offer further particulars about the vulture’s death but stated it contacted the Dallas Law enforcement Section, which is investigating the matter. Dallas Law enforcement did not immediately reply to Insider’s ask for for remark.

The Dallas Zoo 1st created nationwide headlines previously this month when a female clouded leopard named Nova was not inside of her habitat when workers arrived on the early morning of January 13. The zoo stated the leopard, which it described as not perilous, weighed 25 kilos and was “even bigger than a house cat and scaled-down than most bobcats.”

Nova was missing for quite a few several hours just before she was located in close proximity to her enclosure and speedily secured. The zoo explained she experienced no indicators of damage and rapidly settled again into her standard regime.

—Dallas Zoo (@DallasZoo) January 13, 2023

Sgt. Warren Mitchell, a general public information and facts officer for the Dallas Police claimed for the duration of a push convention held while Nova was missing that “right after investigating, it is our perception that this was an intentional act.”

In a follow-up statement, police reported they determined “a slicing device was deliberately utilised to cut an opening in the fencing of the Clouded Leopard’s habitat.” They also reported they have been manufactured knowledgeable of a “related minimize” created in the langurs’ enclosure, but that all of the monkeys have been accounted for.

Police additional the investigation was ongoing and that it was not nevertheless distinct if the cuts in the leopard enclosure and the langur enclosure were being linked.

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