The Taipei Zoo yesterday appealed to the public to look for a mother anteater, nicknamed “Hsiao Hung” (小紅, “little red”) who escaped last month, as her caretakers fear for her safety in the wild.
Surveillance cameras showed that the anteater, carrying her baby on her back, escaped early on Sept. 1, making her way past several barriers, climbing over electrical wire fences, swimming across a moat, and scaling metal bars and barricades to flee into the mountains at the rear, Taipei Zoo spokesman Eric Tsao (曹先紹) said yesterday.
The zoo organized a search party and found the baby anteater that afternoon, but not the mother, Tsao said.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo via CNA
The zoo is appealing to the public to look for Hsiao Hung, as she might be attacked by feral dogs or other wild animals in the mountains, he added.
Hsiao Hung arrived in Taiwan in August 2018, was placed in the zoo’s Tropical Rainforest zone, and after mating with a male anteater, gave birth on May 10.
A southern tamandua species from the rainforests and savannas of South America, Hsiao Hung mainly eats ants, termites an bees, the zoo said.
Anteaters are arboreal in habit and avoid paved roads, so Hsiao Hung is likely still in the mountains, the zoo said, adding that escaped animals tend to stay in forests where they can hide and find food, but this species has poor vision, no teeth, and are unable to defend themselves if attacked by wild animals.
“We have collected her baby’s feces and spread it around to entice her to trace her baby’s scent and come home. We have also installed cage traps with food and infrared cameras, but have yet to catch any pictures of her. If anybody has seen her, please contact us,” Tsao said.
The zoo has had other animals that had escaped in the past, mostly involving Formosan serows, gibbons and chimpanzees, he said.
Gibbons and chimpanzees have sometimes fled outside by swinging from overgrown trees, but these simians are social animals and family-oriented, so they would soon climb back to join their group, he said.
Additional reporting by Jason
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