From Newsweek
A slew of mysterious circumstances at the Dallas Zoo have grown more concerning after an endangered vulture was found dead in its enclosure on Saturday.
The Dallas Zoo has suffered a trio of destructive incidents over the last 10 days that have led to a clouded leopard escaping its enclosure, a damaged enclosure for Langur monkeys, and most recently, escalated into the discovery of a dead endangered vulture. The Dallas Police Department (DPD) has been investigating the incidents, and it is still unclear if the incidents are related.
After police were called on-site for the missing clouded leopard, zoo staff showed investigators another animal habitat that had recently been damaged.
A cut similar to the one made in the clouded leopard Nova’s enclosure was discovered in a habitat occupied by Langur monkeys. None escaped, however, and weren’t harmed.
From NBC:
The vulture — one of 6,500 on the planet— was found dead Saturday morning in the facility’s “Wilds of Africa” habitat, the zoo’s statement said. A veterinary team trying to determine its cause of death found “an unusual wound and injuries, which pointed to this not being a natural death,” the zoo said. The zoo said on Facebook that its animal care team was “heartbroken” over the death of the vulture, which spent most of its life at the facility and sired 11 chicks. “Given the recent incidents at the Zoo, we alerted the Dallas Police Department,” the post said. “We cannot share many details until Dallas PD has had more time to look into this matter.” In a statement Monday, the police department said patrol officers and animal cruelty detectives responded and began conducting interviews and reviewing security video.