The El Paso Zoo in west Texas does not have a permanent mountain lion exhibit but it apparently had a recent temporary four-legged visitor anyway. According to a security guard making the early morning rounds, a mountain lion somehow got into the zoo’s perimeter anyway.
“He shined his flashlight (at the lion), and it ran away from him. He went to the zoo office and called me,” Steve Marshall, El Paso Zoo director, told the El Paso Times. “We’ve never had a large cat (mountain lion) get in the zoo.”
Zoo workers, game wardens and even members of the El Paso police force spent five hours looking for the intruder but never found it. Zoo officials decided to shut down business for the day before reopening the following day.
Earlier this year, a black bear broke into a zoo in Pocatello, Idaho before being returned to the wild.
(Photo source: El Paso Zoo)