Lost and Found: Rusty, the Red Panda Returns to National Zoo

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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.
"He could be sick & hiding, or someone could have taken him," the Zoo posted on Twitter on Monday morning before finding their wayward charge. "Please help us keep an eye out for Rusty."
Red pandas are typically the size of a house cat and have big, bushy tails. (Read: Red panda facts.)

They spend most of their time in trees, even sleeping in the branches. They are most active at night, as well as in the early morning and early evening hours.

"They're raccoon-like and share certain raccoon characteristics but they're not as adept or opportunistic as raccoons," said Marc Brody, a conservationist and National Geographic grantee who founded Panda Mountain, a panda conservation center.

"And they would be hard pressed to make it on their own," he said. "If it was late in the season, there would be a lot more fruiting plants around the National Zoo. I'm sure he can live for a couple of days but to forage indefinitely, it's early in the season to feed on fruits and berries."
Brody warned that Rusty could have been in trouble if temperatures climbed. Red pandas typically live in a cooler climate and might not adapt well to the humidity of Washington.

"Red pandas generally tend to sleep in trees during the heat of the day," said Murphy. "They're not aggressive, but we are advising people to respect that he is a wild animal."
Rusty arrived in Washington D.C. in April, from a zoo in Lincoln, Nebraska. He has been on exhibit for about three weeks and is up to date on all of his shots.

He is not the only red panda to go on the lam. Yin, who lived at the Virginia Zoo from 2007 until her death in 2011, escaped twice in a month shortly after arriving in Norfolk, Va.

"She was quite the escape artist," said Winfield Danielson, the marketing and PR manager for the Virginia Zoo. "We design the habitats in accordance with the standards of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to keep the animals secure in their habitats but sometimes things happen. One time a branch fell from a tree and allowed Yin to climb over."

National Zoo Finds 'Rusty,' Missing Red Panda

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At around 2:15 p.m., the zoo reported that the panda was back, safe and sound, after what must have been a scary experience for a little guy.

Rusty, a red panda who turns one in July, was introduced to the zoo on June 10 from the Lincoln Children’s Zoo in Nebraska. And Monday morning, just two weeks later, the zoo tweeted out that the animal was missing, having last been seen at 6 p.m. Sunday evening. The zoo requested the public’s help in tracking him down.

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After almost a day missing, Rusty is back, the zoo said, having been found in Adams Morgan, a nearby neighborhood in Northwest Washington D.C.

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"Rusty the red panda has been recovered, crated and is headed safely back to the National Zoo! Thank you to everyone who helped us look for and find him!," the zoo wrote on its Facebook page.

National Zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson told the Associated Press Monday morning that Rusty couldn't have gotten very far.

"Unless he was very motivated, he would not wander far from his habitat," Baker-Masson said. "This red panda is not down on the (National) Mall."

Red pandas are arboreal, territorial animals, the zoo’s Twitter feed added, so it would be unusual for Rusty to wander far from his home range -- in his case his exhibit at the zoo.

Twin Giant Pandas Born in China

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A rare giant panda has given birth to twins in China, the first pair of the endangered species born in the world this year, conservation workers told state media Sunday.

They were born to a panda named Haizi at the Wolong Nature Reserve in China's southwest Sichuan province on Saturday evening, according to the Xinhua news agency.

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The first cub arrived at 4:54 pm (0954 GMT) and the second 10 minutes later, said workers at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda on the reserve.

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The mother is still holding the first cub in her arms so staff have been unable to weigh it or determine its gender. But they said it should be healthy, given its size and the sounds it has been making.

The second cub is a female and weighs 79.2 grams (just under three ounces), the staff said, according to Xinhua.

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Haizi became pregnant after mating with males Bai Yang and Yi Bao in March -- most giant pandas are not good breeders when in captivity.

Fewer than 1,600 pandas remain in the wild, mainly in Sichuan, with around 300 in captivity around the world, the majority in China.