By Dana Hedgpeth
The Washington Post
She has been on the loose for almost two weeks now — a red panda named Sunny who escaped from a zoo in Virginia.
Sunny’s tale started Jan. 23 at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. When zookeepers went to check on her she was not in her enclosure and they searched for her to no avail.
Almost two weeks into the search, the zoo has gone through a variety of efforts, including using K-9 units, infrared cameras, a drone, and traps with grapes and bamboo in hopes of luring her back, according to its website, where it has been tracking the search.
Red pandas are reddish-brown in color with thick fur and a long tail. They are about the size of a raccoon. They typically are found in trees.
Zookeepers said it is red panda breeding season and the animals tend to be “more agitated and could display a little abnormal or hyperactive behavior.”
One theory of how she may have escaped is that Sunny may have been on a tree branch that was slippery from rain the evening she escaped, as Thomas — a male red panda — was “pursuing her and caused her to slip and fall and possibly get out of the enclosure.”
The continued search for Sunny comes as the National Zoo happily found its bobcat, Ollie, which escaped for 2 ½ days from her enclosure.
There have been calls to the Virginia Zoo of possible sightings, but the zoo said they have turned out to be raccoons or foxes.
She isn’t the only red panda to have escaped.
Three years ago, Rusty — a red panda at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. — escaped from his enclosure at the facility. He was later found in a tree in Washington’s Adams Morgan neighborhood.
Sunny is 19 months old and came to the Norfolk zoo in May 2016 from the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia. The public is asked not to feed her but to call if she’s spotted.
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