Toronto’s second runaway-turned-folk-hero is back behind bars, after an action-packed five weeks on the run from a Toronto park, munching grass and lolling around in ponds.
The capybara’s brief taste of freedom came to an end on Tuesday, after the rodent – native to South America and resembling a large, tailless beaver with stumpy legs – was lured into a cage near a pond in the 400-acre park in the city.
“It’s baaaack!” Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation announced on Facebook. The capybara, it said, was now resting indoors as it awaited medical assessment. “Once it gets a clean bill of health, and is comfortable in its surroundings, it will be reunited with the other capybara.”
The announcement brought an end to Toronto’s saga of the missing capybaras – a tale that captured the city’s imagination and made headlines around the world. On 24 May, two capybaras, one male and one female, bolted from a small zoo in Toronto’s High Park. It was their first day at the High Park zoo, after being brought in from a breeder in Texas to join Chewie, the zoo’s lone capybara.
The door on their cage reportedly wasn’t properly closed and the pair, dubbed Bonnie and Clyde by zoo staff, fled. One of the capybaras was captured earlier this month, but the other remained at large for another two weeks, outmaneuvering search teams in hot pursuit.
As hundreds of Toronto residents reported sightings, officials warned residents not to approach the animals. The world’s largest rodent, capybaras can grow to weigh as much as 150lb. Just six months old, Toronto’s rogue capybaras are around 30lb in size.
The outlaws were celebrated as folk heroes on social media, with capybara Twitter accounts taunting the dozens of park employees and capybara hunters out searching for the fugitives: “We can hear helicopters overhead. Is that you looking for us, @HighParkZoo?”
Volunteers and professionals joined the search, learning all they could about the sleeping and eating habits of the rodents in order to predict their next moves.
After initial attempts to attract the rodents by playing capybara calls over a speaker yielded no results, search teams turned to traps baited with corn and fruit to lure the animals. Ultimately this was how both of the wayward rodents were captured.
Officials said the second capybara could be back in its place at the zoo – and on display to the public – as early as Thursday.
