[FEL-L] St Louis Zoo, How Cheetah cub Escaped

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St Louis Zoo, How Cheetah cub Escaped 
 
 
Cheetah cub escapes from its cage climbing 10 feet tall wall 

St. Louis Zoo officials were puzzled by how a year-old cheetah managed to 
escape from its cage. 

The cheetah scaled a wall at least 10 feet (three meters) tall on Monday and 
got into a rocky area that separates animals from people at the River's Edge 
exhibit. The area was quickly evacuated. Twenty-seven minutes later, the 
cheetah was found, tranquilized and returned unharmed to its exhibit. 

"We have no idea how the cat got up there," said Jack Grisham, vice president 
of animal collection for the zoo, on Tuesday. "We have a million theories. It 
could have been the cats playing with one another and it made the lucky jump 
- or unlucky jump." 

The cheetah, a female named Zuri, weighs 40 to 45 pounds (18.1 to 20.4 
kilograms), Grisham said. She is one of four born on Nov. 10, 2006 , at the zoo - 
the first new litter here since 1992. One of the cheetahs died a month later. 

Grisham said a visitor noticed the loose cheetah and notified a zoo worker. 
Security workers cleared the River's Edge area and all zoo visitors were told 
to get inside a building. 

Grisham said the animal apparently did not threaten any patrons. 

Cheetahs are more docile than most other big cats, Grisham said. Still, "any 
wild animal could be a danger to the public," he said. "These animals are not 
pets." 

The incident marked the third time since 2000 that a cheetah has escaped from 
the zoo enclosure. In both previous instances, changes were made to offer 
better protection to the public - fencing was increased and a moat separating the 
animals and visitors was widened. 

Zoo officials were evaluating if additional changes need to be made. Grisham 
said a cheetah under normal circumstances should not be able to jump to the 
top of a 10-foot (three-meter) fence. 

_http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/21-11-2007/101319-cheetah_cub-0_ 
(http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/21-11-2007/101319-cheetah_cub-0) 



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