Last week, a 60-pound cheetah escaped her enclosure in a Nebraska zoo, triggering a red-alert lockdown procedure.
The cheetah, a five-year-old female named Gretchen, managed to slip out of her fenced-in habitat within Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. She was wandering around the nearby safari exhibit when zoo staff spotted her.
In a press release, zoo officials stated that Gretchen remained behind a public barrier and within keepers’ line of sight throughout the duration of her foray. While cheetahs are dangerous predators in the wild, zoo officials say the public was never in real danger in this instance.
Still, the zoo’s entrances and exits were immediately sealed off, and all guests were ushered into buildings just in case. Meanwhile, the cheetah was captured and led back to a safe containment area.
The zoo is currently investigating the mechanism of the breakout. It may be that someone intentionally messed with the enclosure. (This was the case in the Dallas Zoo, where a man let out a leopard and two monkeys earlier this month.) More likely, however, the escape was simply a case of feline ingenuity. Many zoo animals are intelligent and curious and occasionally find ways to outsmart their fencing on their own. A few weeks ago, a bear escaped his enclosure in the St. Louis Zoo twice, and no foul play was suspected.
Regardless of Gretchen’s strategy, zoo staff plan to do what they can to keep it from happening again.
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