We’re glad they’ve found him!
A male red panda who had been missing from the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington D.C. was safely captured on Monday afternoon after he escaped from his confines last night!
Zoo officials first noticed the red panda, whose name is Rusty, was missing Monday morning around 7am. They sounded the zoo alarms at 8am, and tweeted this around noon:
“We are looking for a missing red panda, a male named Rusty. He was last seen at 6 p.m. last night.”
Zoo officials closed the National Zoo, and searched everywhere in the vicinity. They did not believe the red panda had actually escaped the zoo, but just his cage.
Turns out they were wrong!
A good samaritan tweeted this later in the day:
Red panda in our neighborhood! 20th NW and Biltmore. Please come save him! @nationalzoo1 pic.twitter.com/llQF7P9QH5
— Ashley Foughty (@AshleyFoughty) June 24, 2013
Soon afterwards the National Zoo tweeted they had RECOVERED Rusty in Adams Morgan. Here’s what they wrote:
Rusty the red panda has been recovered, crated & is headed safely back to the National Zoo!
— National Zoo (@NationalZoo) June 24, 2013
Then this:
Rusty has returned from his trip to Adams Morgan and is getting a checkup at our vet hospital. pic.twitter.com/V4B8pseVUc
— National Zoo (@NationalZoo) June 24, 2013
We’re so happy this gorgeous red panda has been found! We’d hate anything bad to have happened to this little guy!
Especially since he won’t even have his first ever birthday until some time in July.
He’s just a baby!!
We’ll definitely will be visiting him and his zoo friends next time we’re around his parts.
Stay safe you furry cutie!!!!
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[Image via Twitter.]