Photo via National Zoo

Rusty, the National Zoo’s red panda that spent much of Monday climbing out of his pen and toward the Lanier Heights neighborhood, is reportedly in good condition a day following his urban adventure. Devin Murphy, a spokeswoman for the zoo, says Rusty was alert this morning when he was checked out at the zoo’s veterinary hospital.

“He was eating normally, drinking normally, and pooping normally, which are all good signs,” Murphy says.

If Rusty checks out, he could be returned to the red panda exhibit along the zoo’s Asia Trail later this week. Murphy says the zoo’s doctors need to make sure Rusty didn’t consume anything foreign while he was “on the lam” yesterday. After being spotted in his exhibit about 6 p.m. Sunday, Rusty was nowhere to be found the following morning, prompting a search that included numerous National Zoo curators and animal keepers and the Washington Humane Society.

Rusty was eventually spotted in some bushes outside a house near the intersection of 20th and Biltmore streets NW. A photo posted by Twitter user Ashley Foughty was rapidly retweeted and eventually brought out the zoo’s response team. “She was instrumental,” Murphy says. “She did exactly what the public was asked to do.”

But before Rusty gets put back on display, the zoo’s staff is going to check over the exhibit to make sure there are no possible escape routes. National Zoo director Dennis Kelly said yesterday that his team had no idea how Rusty got out, and Murphy says the zoo is no closer to an answer this morning. Red pandas are arboreal creatures that spend a great deal of time climbing through trees.

“We don’t have any theories, but we’re going to be combing over the entire exhibit,” she says.