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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Flowers and a sign are seen at the Alpaca exhibit at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans on Monday. The death of a wounded fox brings to nine the number of animals that have died as the result of the weekend escape of a jaguar from its enclosure at the zoo in New Orleans. All five of the zoo’s alpaca were killed.
NEW ORLEANS >> A zoo official in New Orleans says a jaguar that killed nine other animals during a weekend escape is believed to have bitten through a steel-cable barrier that forms the roof of its habitat.
Kyle Burks of the Audubon Zoo told reporters today that the jaguar apparently slipped through the resulting small gap in the barrier.
No people were hurt. The animal was tranquilized and safely removed less than an hour after an employee discovered it was out early Saturday, before the zoo’s opening time.
But Burks says officials don’t know how long it roamed free. He also said it’s “conceivable” the cat might have been able to breach an outer perimeter and escape the zoo. But he stressed that the staff was trained to prevent such an occurrence.
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