The Greenville Zoo’s four-year-old Amur leopard, Irina, escaped her exhibit Thursday morning and was loose within the grounds around 8:42 a.m. She was tranquilized about 40 minutes later and taken back to a secured leopard den after a second precautionary injection.
The escape set off an immediate evacuation of zoo staff and guests, while Greenville police and city staff established a perimeter around the zoo and in the Cleveland Park area. By the time the animal was brought under control, the episode had already turned a routine morning into a rapid response operation.
Irina’s release came even though the zoo’s male leopard and two cubs remained safely inside their exhibit. That detail makes the event harder to explain, because the enclosure was not empty and the animal that got out was a young leopard with a clear medical and breeding history at the zoo.
Irina arrived in Greenville from St. Louis in Oct. 2024 at age two, and she gave birth to twin cubs on May 17, 2026. The Greenville Zoo has described her as a first-time mother, and that matters because Amur leopards are critically endangered, with fewer than 150 left in the wild.
The zoo said it will remain closed while staff investigate, leaving one key question unanswered: how Irina got out in the first place. For now, the outcome is clear enough. The animal was found, sedated, and secured. What changed is that the Greenville Zoo is now dealing with a breach inside its own grounds, and reopening depends on whether staff can explain it.
