Snow leopard escapes from wildlife park in Qinghai

An elderly snow leopard escaped from its enclosure at Xining Wildlife Park in Xining, Qinghai province, as per the park's official Weibo account on Friday.

On Friday morning, staff members at the park discovered that a 16-year-old snow leopard, named Naonao, had escaped from its enclosure. Naonao, comparable in age to an 80-year-old human, has been moved from the snow leopard house to the leopard house for a science popularization exhibition since the first half of this year, the announcement said.

Upon discovering the escape, the park immediately activated its emergency response plan, organizing a search, evacuating visitors, closing the park, and reporting the situation to relevant authorities. In response, city emergency services, fire rescue, forestry and grassland departments, public security, and other departments promptly deployed personnel and technical resources to search the area.

The park's complex terrain and dense vegetation, combined with the snow leopard's cautious nature and ability to hide, have made the search challenging. Preliminary search suggests that Naonao is still within the park, but no trace has been found yet.

Snow leopards are large felines known for their gentle temperament, and there are very few instances worldwide of them attacking humans.

The search operation is underway, and the park said it will inform the public of the progress in a timely manner.