BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – 72 hours after Cara the Python slithered away in the Mall of Louisiana, she’s back home at the Blue Zoo Aquarium.
On Thursday, officials with the Zoo detailed how Cara escaped her enclosure Monday morning.
“She had a mesh grating on top of her enclosure that was sealed with hammered staples. She was able to push her way through that grate and she got out on top of her enclosure which is near a ceiling tile and that’s how she winded up in that ceiling,” said Blue Zoo Aquarium Operations Manager Blake Underhill.
Thursday morning, the 12-foot long Burmese Python was rescued from a hole in the wall.
“She was in a cross base connected to our firewall in the mall and we were able to remove a panel that’s there for that cross base and look in there and see her,” said Underhill.
Cara spent the day at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine for medical evaluation. After being checked, she was released back to the zoo.
“They found no signs that she had eaten anything while she was up there, they have no concerns for any of that, they ran blood panels on her, they had no concerns there either,” said Underhill.
Now that this viral sensation has made a great escape, the zoo is taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“So that enclosure has been redone already so she has a new top on that enclosure, it is a solid top. It is secured in multiple locations and she’s going to be getting yet another enclosure beyond what she already has. The redesign is already in the works, we’re working on that now. This problem is going to be corrected, no more shenanigans from Cara,” said Underhill.