Dallas Zoo asks police to investigate ‘unusual’ death of critically endangered vulture

The Dallas Zoo alerted police to the ‘unusual’ death of an endangered vulture in their ‘Wild Africa’ habitat over the weekend, about a week after the clouded leopard escaped through a ‘suspicious hole’.

“The animal care team is heartbroken at this huge loss,” the Dallas Zoo tweeted on Sunday, noting that “the circumstances of death are unusual” and “does not appear to be from natural causes.”

“Given the recent incidents at the zoo, we have alerted the Dallas Police Department.”

The vulture’s death comes after Nova’s clouded leopard escaped through a hole in his exhibit a week ago. Hours of searching followed, and eventually the big cat was found unharmed and still on the zoo grounds.

At the time, officials said that the opening of the Nova exhibition was intentionally cut out.

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While investigating how Nova escaped, another hole was found in the langur monkey exhibit that appeared to have been intentionally cut out. None of the monkeys escaped from the habitat, but the police opened a criminal case for hooliganism.

In this undated image provided by the Dallas Zoo, a clouded leopard named Nova rests on a tree branch in an enclosure.
(Dallas Zoo via AP)

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The Dallas Zoo said it has installed additional surveillance cameras on the property and has stepped up patrols at night.

“We will continue to implement and expand our security measures to whatever level is necessary to keep our animals and staff safe,” the Dallas Zoo said in a statement.