Puma captured and returned to zoo in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Authorities have captured a female puma that escaped from a zoo in Venezuela's capital.

Information Minister Andres Izarra says the puma was hiding in a forested area of 740 acres that surrounds the Caricuao Zoo in western Caracas.

Izarra says the puma was returned to the zoo on Friday, a day after it escaped.

Pumas are native to the Americas. The large cat has the greatest range of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, extending from Canada to the southern Andes of South America.