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It’s only July, and it has been a busy year for zoo staff and pet owners alike for animals going viral for going missing. These noteworthy animal escapes from the last several months would make the plucky penguins from the cinematic classic Madagascar proud.
Misha and Lucy the bears
When bear siblings escaped from their enclosure at Wildwood Devon zoo in England, everyone, understandably, panicked. The staff evacuated the park and called the police—just to find that Misha and Lucy had only gotten as far as the kitchen, which had just received a delivery of fruits and vegetables. The bears helped themselves to the produce and a week’s worth of honey before falling asleep.
After escaping their habitat, Misha and Lucy feasted in the zoo’s kitchen. CREDIT: Wildwood Trust.
Sheila the kangaroo
It’s not every day you see a kangaroo on the loose in Alabama—especially one hopping along an interstate between Montgomery and Auburn. Yet that was exactly where the marsupial named Sheila was doing in late April, before state troopers and her owner managed to catch her.
“I hear my grandmother yell, ‘Is that a kangaroo?’” Austin Price, an individual who filmed Sheila along the interstate, told the Associated Press. Price thought his grandma had seen a deer. But then he glanced over and realized, “yeah, it’s a kangaroo.”
Ed the zebra
Ed the zebra first arrived in Christiana, a community in central Tennessee, on May 30. By May 31, the zebra was already reported missing. Several sightings and social media posts later—including one featuring Ed calmly trotting through a suburban neighborhood—and the zebra had become a social media sensation.
On June 8, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Ed had finally been captured and airlifted back to an animal trailer. A video showcases the zebra sitting comically upright in a net carried by a helicopter. As you might imagine, the memes took the internet by storm.
Louie and Ophelia the river otters
Out of all the wild animal escapes listed here, Louie the North American river otter was the only one to successfully avoid recapture. He and fellow otter Ophelia escaped from New Zoo Adventure Park in northeastern Wisconsin in March and led the staff on an otterly wild chase with the help of some mischievous raccoons.
Ophelia was caught on April 1. Two months later, the zoo announced that “due to the length of time that Louie has been missing, we believe he has made the decision to be a wild otter.”
Mac the wallaby
On June 16, a female wallaby named Mac escaped Grace and Glory Animals, an animal education zoo in Oswego, New York. Therein began another frenzied marsupial hunt featuring daily social media updates from zoo owner Dan Oostdyk, with hundreds of shares from a worried public.
“Is it me or does it it feel like we are trying to catch a damn Pokémon,” one Facebook user commented on the update from June 19 about a confirmed sighting of Mac. The Pokémon-wannabe was finally apprehended on June 25.
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