Red Panda Recovering From Escape Attempt Foiled By Twitter [Video]


Red panda Rusty’s great escape from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington D.C. on Monday is truly a tale for our times. We’ll never know for sure exactly when the mischievous red panda slipped his enclosure sometime between 6 PM on Sunday evening and 7:30 AM on Monday morning.

But, thanks to Twitter, we know exactly when he was found. Check out the selected tweets below that hit the highlights of how the wandering red panda was lost and then found by an alert local in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.

On Tuesday morning, The Washington Post quoted zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson, who was happy to give a statement on the condition of the runaway panda:

“Rusty is sleeping well, eating well, hydrating well and — this is probably too much information — he’s pooping well…I spoke to the vet this morning and she said Rusty is ‘bright and alert.'”

Baker-Masson went on to say that the zoo had been concerned that the red panda had eaten something he shouldn’t have while he was on the lam.

Apparently an analysis of the red panda’s poop revealed that he hadn’t.

Even though Rusty is well, he’s being kept in the zoo clinic pending an investigation of how he got out. It still isn’t clear how he escaped, and it’s possible that someone deliberately set the red panda free.

According to an earlier WaPo report on the missing panda, former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich tweeted that he had an alibi.

That’s a little weird, but OK.

Enjoy the Twitter timeline of the red panda escapade.

 

 

 

 

 

[red panda photo via Wikimedia Commons]

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