Keepers find cut fence at Houston Zoo

Houston police launched an investigation Tuesday after it was discovered that a mesh fence had been cut at the Houston Zoo.

Keepers noticed a four-inch gap in the grid of the brown pelican habitat at the Children’s Zoo, zoo officials said.

They immediately determined that the animals at the exhibition were safe and unharmed, and then alerted zoo security.

The rupture appears to be the result of vandalism.

As a precaution, all other parts of the animals were carefully examined, and nothing similar was found. Zoo security also informed the police, who sent officers to inspect the area.

Zoo officials released a statement saying they are prepared to prosecute, to the fullest extent permitted by law, anyone who compromises animals in their care.

“We will not tolerate theft or threat to any of our animals, large or small,” the post reads. “These animals represent their wild counterparts and are completely dependent on the qualified assistance of our staff. Actions that threaten this concern are unacceptable, dangerous and criminal.”

This is one of several instances of fence cutting recently discovered in the country’s zoos.

In January, police arrested a 24-year-old man accused of kidnapping two tamarin monkeys named Bella and Finn from the Dallas Zoo. Monkeys in the closet of an empty house in Lancaster, a suburb of Dallas, about 15 miles (24 km) south of the zoo.

Police said the suspect, Davion Irwin, was charged with six counts of animal cruelty and two counts of burglary.

The police also linked Irvine to the little leopard’s escape. On January 13, Dallas Zoo workers arrived to find a clouded leopard named Nova missing from her cage, and police said a cutting tool was deliberately used to make a hole in her enclosure. The zoo closed as the search began for her, and later that day she was found near her habitat.

Zookeepers also found a similar hole in the langur enclosure, though none escaped or were harmed, police said.

On January 21, zookeepers found an endangered vulture named Pin, dead. Gregg Hudson, the zoo’s president and CEO, called the death “very suspicious” and said the vulture had a “wound”.

At the time of this writing, the vulture’s death has not been linked to Irwin.

12 squirrel monkeys have gone missing at a Louisiana zoo.

Officials said their habitat at a zoo in Broussard, about 60 miles (96 km) west of Baton Rouge, was “compromised” and some damage was done to get inside, city police chief Vance Olivier said. He declined to provide further information about the damage, citing an ongoing investigation.

Zoosiana said in a Facebook post that the remaining monkeys were examined and were not harmed.