ABILENE, Texas — Officials at a West Texas zoo say a jaguar scaled a 12-foot-tall artificial rock wall and forced her way under netting that topped her enclosure to escape the exhibit last week.
Officials at the Abilene Zoo said Wednesday that the jaguar named Estrella then scaled an adjacent cinderblock wall and forced her way through an 8-inch gap to access the rest of the zoo.
Once free of her enclosure, Estrella climbed a nearby exhibit housing spider monkeys, fatally injuring one.
Zoo staff found her May 15 lounging atop the monkeys’ exhibit. The 120-lb. (54 kilograms) jaguar was shot with a sedation dart and taken to a holding pen.
Estrella was found before the zoo opened for the day and officials say she was never a threat to the public.
The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens has also experienced its own issues with escape artists.
In November of 2011, a male, white-backed African vulture named Hodari flew the coop after a device that is supposed to keep it ground-bound broke.
There’s been no record of the recovery of Hodari, but according to the Zoo officials, the vulture was photographed in an orange grove in Avon Park, happily feeding on a deer carcass along with several turkey vultures.
In another incident, Archie, a 4,000-pound rhino escaped from his overnight stall by pushing open an unsecured gate open. He spent the morning on the lam before zoo staffers used sedatives and tug-of-war techniques to bring him home.
