Washington zoo recaptures Rusty the red panda after social-media frenzy
Social networkers help locate red panda after its short spell on the run in Washington goes viral
There was an important ruling by the US Supreme Court early in the day, Edward Snowden was possibly on a flight from Moscow to Cuba, and the Dow was diving. But in Washington, a red panda hijacked Monday's news cycle.
To help find Rusty, a raccoon-size mammal with a striped tail and moon-shaped face, the National Zoo from where it escaped turned to social media, and suddenly half of official Washington broke from serious events to tune into the saga of the runaway panda.
On Twitter and Facebook, the hunt for 11-month-old Rusty, whom the zoo acquired three weeks ago as a partner to a female panda named Shama, exploded in a mix of concern and humour.
Doug Stafford, a senior aide to Senator Rand Paul, called the escape a cautionary tale.
"If we don't use drones to spy on everyone, the pandas will win," he wrote.
The zoo announced Rusty's disappearance to its thousands of Twitter followers in a message that was retweeted nearly 3,000 times in an hour.
On its Facebook page, the zoo said keepers had been combing the Asia Trail habitat - where Rusty and Shama live between a Japanese giant salamander and a small-clawed otter - since 8am. But in an ominous note, the zoo said it was possible that Rusty had been stolen.