A Chinese Red Panda at the Red River Zoo in Fargo briefly escaped from its enclosure on Saturday, according to zoo officials.

UPDATE:

"He was just so agile and not even afraid of anything and just went for it," said Ashley Dedin, a Red River Zoo member.

Ashley and her husband say they got to the Red River Zoo around 2 p.m. Saturday. They go there often and wanted to change things up.

"Well, we actually decided to go backward at the zoo this time cause we're zoo members and we always go the same way," said Dedin.

With that unusual route, came an unusual sight. One minute Dedin was looking at red pandas and the next...

"There was like a shovel in the enclosure and like a little garbage can and he started climbing it, and we just knew that he was going to get out," said Dedin. "He looked so mischievous."

Ashley says she could see it in the panda's eyes.

A look that says, "I'm doing something I'm not supposed to." She says she knows that look all too well.

"Alden is at the stage where he is crawling and pulling up on everything and he kind of gets that kind of mischievous look in his eye too," said Dedin.

So she took out her phone, capturing the panda on video.

The panda, also known as Sheffield, escaped the zoo two months ago. This time, cleaning equipment was accidentally left inside.

"Sheffield is really and explorer, and he's extremely smart, extremely strong," said Sally Jacobson, Executive Director at the Red River Zoo

Sheffield ended up crawling back into his exhibit shortly after he had escaped. Jacobson also tells that they've had pandas in the exhibit for 20 years and they don't feel the need to expand it.

ORIGINAL:

Jeremiah Gard, Director of Finance and Business Development at the Red River Zoo, said the red panda couldn’t have been out of its enclosure for more than three or four minutes.

According to the zoo, the animal climbed on top of equipment that was left inside its exhibit by an employee. The employee was reprimanded.

The zoo is investigating the incident, but the red panda climbed back into its enclosure. This is the second time in less than two months that a panda has escaped.

In this case, the public was never in danger and the escape wasn’t due to a failure of the exhibit, according to Gard.