Missing animals and extensive damages at Marana petting zoo after monsoon storm

A family-owned Marana petting zoo specializing in exotic animals is rebuilding structures and frantically searching for animals following an intense storm that hit this last weekend.

"It's a disaster," said co-owner of Ghost Ranch Exotics Georgi Davisson. "All of our shade awnings were destroyed, some of our animal houses were destroyed. We're picking up the pieces."

Along with damage to fences and structures, a 5,000-pound aviary enclosure was whisked away by the intense tornado-like winds. The structure crashed 4-acres away on the property further damaging fences and enclosures and killing a couple small birds.

As the Friday night winds plowed through Ghost Ranch Exotics, formerly known as Funny Foot Farm, some exotic animals were freed from their now-broken enclosures and escaped into the wild.

"We were missing six animals, and we have found three of those," Davisson said. "We're still missing two porcupines and a kangaroo."

Luckily, Davisson said they know where the kangaroo is located, and they are waiting for vet tranquilizers to corral Guroo the kangaroo back home. The two African porcupines are still on the loose.

Following the storm, they were also missing two capybaras and a warthog, but within the first hour of searching two of those animals were found, leaving Ruby the capybara still missing.

On Monday, one of their neighbors spotted the exotic creature taking a bath in an irrigation canal and Ruby was brought back home.

But home looks a little different now as the Ghost Ranch Exotics family starts the process of rebuilding and repairing an estimated $50,000 worth of damages.

The business recently relocated to this new facility just six months ago after a year of building, which makes the loss even harder on the family.

"This is (our) project, we put everything we had into it," Davisson said. "We're running a little short on funds now as everything we just finished building got destroyed."

On the bright side, Ghost Ranch Exotics has had friends come help clean debris and have hired a few extra people to get the facilities back in running order. They are hopeful it will look more in shape in two weeks and be fully back to normal in about two months.

If you wish to help Ghost Ranch Exotics rebuild, they have started a crowdfunding campaign.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Missing animals and damages at petting zoo following storm