Endangered Dallas Zoo vulture 'Pin' suffered intentional, fatal wound
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) — Dallas Zoo President and CEO Gregg Hudson said an endangered lappet-faced vulture found dead in his enclosure over the weekend suffered an intentional, fatal wound.
"This goes from being about malicious and gets into really criminal intent that's dangerous," Hudson told reporters during a Monday afternoon press conference. "I've been in the zoo profession over 30-plus years, and never had a situation like what happened Saturday. It's unprecedented and very disturbing."
Zoo officials said the animal care team is heartbroken over the loss of the vulture named Pin. He lived at the zoo for the last 33 years and was one of only 27 lappet-faced vultures in captivity in the U.S. Pin was also one of four at the nationally acclaimed zoo and sired 11 offspring. In fact, Pin's first "grandkid" hatched in 2020.
"Deaths are always difficult. But this is especially challenging. There's a good chance lappet-faced vultures could move to critically endangered or even go extinct in our lifetime," said Harrison Edell, Dallas Zoo's executive vice president for animal care and conservation.
On Saturday, the zoo stated that Pin's death didn't appear to be from natural causes. But it wasn't until Jan. 23 that Hudson confirmed this, adding Pin wasn't poisoned, but someone had fatally wounded him. Hudson wouldn't give further details on the ongoing investigation though.
The news came just one week after a clouded leopard named Nova mysteriously escaped her exhibit through a cut-out hole—a hole similar to one found shortly later in a monkey habitat.
Officials said that in the past week, they have added additional night vision cameras throughout the zoo and increased onsite security during overnight hours.
"We have over 100-plus cameras on zoo grounds. We have also increased our surveillance system, and more than doubled our security presence and increased staff overnight," said Hudson.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has joined the Dallas Police Department in their investigation into Pin's death. The zoo is also offering a $10,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest or indictment.
DPD spokesperson Kristin Lowman said anyone with information about Pin's killer, or either of the other two recent incidents should call the animal cruelty unit at 214.670.7694.