WASHINGTON 鈥� National Zoo officials have given up the search for Ollie, the bobcat who went missing from the zoo Monday, but they said Wednesday they鈥檙e hopeful she鈥檒l be OK.
鈥淲e have to be very realistic鈥� about the search, said Craig Saffoe, the curator of great cats at the National Zoo, on Wednesday morning. 鈥淲e are going to stop sending our staff out to canvass neighborhoods.鈥�
The staff will respond to any sightings that get called in, but it鈥檚 a long shot, Saffoe said.
鈥淎 cat doesn鈥檛 wait around for you to catch it,鈥� Saffoe said.
Zoo officials got a report of a possible sighting Tuesday night, Saffoe said 鈥� a cat was reportedly found under a car on Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest. But no luck, he said.
Still, they say, the 25-pound Ollie can probably survive on her own, especially if she made it to Rock Creek Park. Bobcats are native to North America, including the D.C. area, and prey mostly on small rodents and birds.
Keeper Rebecca Sites said that Ollie will be at the top of the food chain around here.
鈥淚 can confirm Ollie can hunt,鈥� Sites said — calling her 鈥渁n opportunistic hunter鈥� who has caught birds, even out of the air.
On Tuesday, D.C. schools canceled recess at 13 schools near the National Zoo, even though zoo officials say the animal poses no danger to humans.
School system spokeswoman Michelle Lerner said Wednesday that 鈥渨e are no longer in imminent danger so we have lifted the alert status at our schools.鈥�
Ollie is believed to have escaped through an opening in the mesh around her enclosure Monday morning.
The bobcat was last counted by zookeepers at 7:30 a.m. Monday, but around 10:40 a.m., Ollie couldn鈥檛 be found when keepers returned for the morning feeding.
蜜桃视频app鈥檚 Neal Augenstein and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
