Mook, a 24-pound clouded leopard, escaped from her exhibit at the National Zoo Friday, forcing zookeepers to chase away early morning visitors and close the Northwest Washington site for about 30 minutes.
The great cat getaway upstaged Friday morning’s introduction of three new African lions to the media.
Zookeeper Jenny Spotten noticed the gray cat at about 7:10 a.m., sleeping next to her cage along the new $53 million Asian Trail exhibit, said spokesman John Gibbons. Spotten called in a “code green,” alerting zoo officials that an animal was out of its exhibit. Zoo police escorted about two dozen visitors and joggers out of the park and locked the gates while animal keepers surrounded the calm cat with nets and dart guns, Gibbons said.
A veterinarian shot Mook with a tranquilizer dart gun, putting her to sleep about 7:40 a.m. She was taken to an enclosed exhibit with her male companion, Tai, where they will remain until the zoo officials determine how she was able to escape from her completely enclosed, wire-mesh 20-foot-tall caged exhibit. No gates or doors were left open, he said.
The clouded leopard has the vanishing skills of David Copperfield and the grace and agility of Jackie Chan, according to the zoo’s Web site.
Clouded leopards have large, sharp-clawed paws, short legs and long tails that provide balance and enable them to track and eat monkeys, wild boar and orangutans.
Mook was last seen Thursday night by animal-keepers who were making their last rounds. Mook could have moved throughout the entire zoo, but apparently chose to stay near familiar surroundings, the place she knows where to find food and shelter, Gibbons said.
Mook and Tai were brought to the National Zoo in August for the October opening of the Asia Trail, the largest improvement to the zoo in 40 years.
