A cute little Red Panda named Masala has escaped from the Sequoia Park Zoo on Nov. 19 and the management is worried about her well-being. The Eureka, California zoo is asking everyone to keep an eye out for the creature which is probably scared right now with the unfamiliar environment.
Sequoia Park Zoo management has been posting on their Facebook and Twitter accounts giving descriptions of the creature and requesting for interested volunteers who can help with the search. There have been reported sightings of Masala near a golf course and again in the forest behind the zoo but none of the tips were confirmed.
The escape was discovered when the zoo staff received a report of a red panda in the neighborhood and confirmed that it was one of theirs after checking the enclosure.
"We have no idea how she got over the fence... She's only been in the panda exhibit her whole life so she's pretty naïve," Gretchen Ziegler, Sequoia Park Zoo's manager said. Management also advised the public not to approach the wild creature if sighted but to immediately call the zoo instead since, even if Masala is not a danger to humans, she is still a wild animal.
"Red pandas are small raccoon-like mammals, the size of a large domestic cat, wild, and they eat bamboo" the Sequoia Park Zoo wrote in its Facebook page. In this regard, they asked everyone to be alert, especially those who have bamboo plants in their garden. The also urged their followers to spread the news in social media.
Masala, born in July 2014, is the second result of a collective breeding plan, along with her twin sister Cini. Mohu, a red panda born in 2013 under the same breeding plan, also resides with them in the same enclosure and are being closely guarded by zookeepers to prevent another escape.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
