Photos Courtesy of the Dallas Police Department
The Dallas Zoo has been plagued by a string of incidents that investigators are calling “intentional”. First, a clouded snow leopard escaped through a cut section of fence and was located onsite. A similar cut section of fence was found in the zoo’s langur monkey exhibit, although no monkeys escaped. A week later, an endangered vulture was found dead, with the zoo’s veterinarian claiming he died of a “wound”.
Two weeks after that, two emperor tamarin monkeys were stolen from their enclosure, with zoo spokesperson, Kari Streiber, announcing that it was “clear the habitat had been intentionally compromised.”
Both monkeys were located on Tuesday, in the Dallas suburb of Lancaster, thanks to an anonymous tip. They are safe and back in the custody of the Dallas Zoo. Police have not made any arrests or named any people of interest, although they have released a surveillance photo through Twitter, and asked locals for help identifying the man, who police spokesperson, Kristin Lowman, said they would like to “speak with him”.
These issues have come at a time when the zoo was rebuilding a damaged reputation. In the early 2000s, the zoo was criticized for its plans to redesign the enclosure for Jenny, an elephant. It was also the location of four attacks, after a gorilla named Jabari escaped his enclosure and became aggressive with patrons.
Since those incidents, the zoo turned over it’s funding to a nonprofit and began to see drastic improvements. Recent incidents, they believe, are not from mismanagement or negligence.
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/us/dallas-zoo-tamarin-monkeys-missing/index.html
nytimes.com/2023/01/31/us/dallas-zoo-monkeys-found.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna4558461
Photo Credit: Dallas Police Department
