Rusty had vanished from the National Zoo and 'gone missing' since 6:00 PM yesterday.
The male red panda had been missing from the National Zoo in Washington D.C. since 6:00 p.m. Sunday evening. Authorities have yet to announce how the furry fugitive managed to escape.
"The keepers last saw him when they fed him on Sunday night," said Devin Murphy, a spokesperson for the zoo. "They noticed he wasn't in his cage at 7:30 a.m. when they went to check on him."
She said that zoo officials combed the grounds for the panda, who is less than a year old.
Rusty was finally located in the Adams Morgan section of Washington DC, was crated and is getting checked out at the vet hospital.
Here is a facsimile of a map recreating Rusty's .8 mile sojourn from the National Zoo to the Adams Morgan neighborhood, very similar to the one the NSA may have used to locate him (if they use Google).
There is no way to know, of course (cough, cough) if and how the NSA actually helped find the little guy. But how does one find a two foot Ailurus fulgen wandering through the streets of Washington DC, without serious help? Does he even have a Facebook page?
(Photo above captured by NSA satellite?)
Oh, the price of civil liberties.
2:58 PM PT: On a more serious note, Think Progress explains how zoo escapees may become more commonplace in the future, thanks to the sequester.
Rusty, the adorable red panda pictured above, escaped from Washington’s National Zoo today. While everyone is hoping for Rusty’s safe return, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the decrepit state of America’s zoo system — and what that says about America’s budget priorities.
Though zoo officials still aren’t sure how Rusty got out, the National Zoo has been hard-hit by sequestration cuts. The Smithsonian Institute, which operates the National Zoo, is facing a cut to the tune of $40 million. Zoo officials told the Washington Post that they’d deal with the shortfall “mainly through freezing hiring, reducing training and delaying new equipment purchases and construction.”
Priorities, indeed. Billions to private contractors for spying on citizens, but cutbacks for the National Zoo (among many others hard hit).