A jaguar escaped from a zoo in New Orleans early Saturday morning, killing six other animals before it was captured.
Audubon Zoo officials discovered that a jaguar named Valerio had escaped from its pen at 7:20 a.m. Saturday morning.
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The animal was sedated and captured by 8 :15 a.m., but by that point it had already killed four alpacas, an emu and a fox in nearby habitats.
“The animal was approached and sedated by our veterinary team and returned and secured in his night quarters,” Kyle Burks, vice president and managing director of Audubon Zoo, said.
Three other animals were also injured in the incident.
The Audubon Zoo was closed as the zoo investigated the incident. It remains unclear how the animal escaped from its enclosure.
“This is a devastating loss for our team. We care for these animals every day and so we’ve closed the zoo today to help our team mourn and to help conduct our investigation,” Burks said.
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He said the zoo was bringing in grief counselors to help staff cope with the incident.
At a press conference, zoo officials could not recall any other similar incidents occurring at the 100-year-old zoo.