Dallas Police are helping search the Dallas Zoo Friday for a missing clouded leopard, a small cat that poses no threat to humans who escaped its habitat overnight.

The Dallas Zoo posted on social media Friday morning that the zoo is closed due to a serious situation — a Code Blue, which indicated a non-dangerous animal was out of its habitat.

“One of our clouded leopards was not in its habitat when the team arrived this morning and is unaccounted for at this time,” the zoo said in their statement. “The Zoo is closed today as our teams work to find and recover the animal.”

The zoo identified the missing clouded leopard as Nova and said she escaped her habitat through a tear in the mesh enclosure she shares with her sister Luna. Both cats were brought to the Dallas Zoo in 2021 after being raised at the Houston Zoo, according to our partners at The Dallas Morning News.

Harrison Edell, vice president for animal care at the Dallas Zoo, said Friday morning that clouded leopards are dramatically different animals from other leopards. They are much smaller, weigh about 30 pounds and pose no danger to people.

Edell said while Nova could be scared, it’s most likely that she climbed a tree to stay out of the way, hunt squirrels and birds and hope to not be noticed.

Because it is winter and there are far fewer leaves on the trees, Edell said it should make finding Nova easier. While staffers are looking into trees from the ground, using binoculars, clouded leopards are very good at staying hidden. He added that the Dallas Police are assisting in the search, looking at treetops with drones equipped with infrared technology.

The zoo said they believe Nova is still inside the zoo and is hiding. The clouded leopard habitat is in Primate Place, in the northwest part of the zoo, north of Clarendon Drive.

Should the cat be seen outside of the zoo’s grounds, Edell cautioned that even though it’s not dangerous to people it’s still a wild animal and people should not attempt to catch it on their own.

“If you happen to see a cat that is bigger than a house cat, smaller than a bobcat, we’d love a heads up. And photos are always helpful too to make sure that we know what we’re looking at. So if people have the opportunity to snap a photo of a cat that looks bigger than usual we’ll take any tip we can get,” Edell said.

The zoo is closed Friday while the search for the animal is ongoing.

WHAT IS A CLOUDED LEOPARD?

According to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, clouded leopards are native to Southeast Asia and are a vulnerable species. Male cats weigh up to 50 pounds while the females are smaller and weigh 25-35 pounds.

The cats have large paws and are very adept at climbing and are one of the few animals that can climb down trees headfirst.

“Clouded leopards are not a ‘type’ of leopard as their name implies. They are a separate species of wild cat, as are snow leopards and leopards,” the Smithsonian reports.

Dallas Zoo

The cats are carnivores that stalk their prey from the trees and attack from above. The Smithsonian said that in the wild a clouded leopard will eat gibbons, macaques, slow loris, small deer and wild boars.

According to a map of the Dallas Zoo, the gibbon habitat is adjacent to the clouded leopard habitat.

They are primarily nocturnal and with an average life span of 12-15 years. With human care, the cats can live 17 years, the Smithsonian said.

PAST ANIMAL ESCAPES AT THE DALLAS ZOO

In 2004, a 13-year-old gorilla named Jabari cleared a 14-foot wall and injured four people before being shot by Dallas Police. After that incident, the zoo beefed up security measures at the exhibit.

In 2010, Tufani the gorilla escaped her locked living quarters and was spotted by a zoo employee preparing food behind a closed door. The zoo tranquilized Tufani and returned her to her living area within an hour. No injuries were reported.

In 2011, Koko, a chimpanzee at the Dallas Zoo, was sedated after briefly escaping from her enclosure. The animal stayed in an area not open to the public. No injuries were reported.

Two weeks after Koko’s escape, also in 2011, a spider monkey briefly escaped from its enclosure and was on top of it’s habitat for about a half hour. Zoo officials said at the time that the animal basically “got out of his bedroom, but was still in the house.” The spider monkey’s escape was attributed to human error. No injuries were reported.

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