From the Sydney baboons to Inky the Octopus: how closely do you follow animal escapes

10 Quick Questions: escaped animal edition Composite: Supplied

My favourite genre of news story is “escaped animal”. From baboons running loose on the streets of Sydney to elephants wreaking havoc in semi-suburbia, there’s something about the juxtaposition of the urban and the wild in these stories that captures the imagination and jolts us out of the mundane.

Of course there’s often a darker undertone to them: animals that ought to be enjoying a fertile wilderness often end up in unexpected places because of habitat loss, deforestation, industry, trade, or one of the myriad other ways humans exploit or manipulate the living world. If an animal escapes an enclosure or a vehicle, it’s hard not to ask: why was it there in the first place?

It’s this darkness, though, that I think drives the pure empathic joy that comes from watching an animal which has spent its life being corralled by people persistently evade capture. I encourage you to seek out the video footage from some of the stories mentioned below, and cheer at the sheer tenacity and wilfulness of the creatures involved.

Not all of these questions are strictly about breakouts, but all involve animals turning up in places they are not expected. How many of them do you remember?

1. In March last year, 15 Asian elephants in the Yunnan province of China decided to quit the nature reserve that had been their home and embark on a 500km trek across the countryside, through farmland and into urban areas. By the time they arrived within 3km of the major city of Kunming, a taskforce of 360 people with 76 cars and nine drones was tracking the group, and allegations of their antics were racking up. Which of the following was this herd NOT alleged to have done?

   1. Broken into a car dealership and drunk two tonnes of water

   2. 

      Turned on the escort that was tracking them and stampeded over three police cars

   3. Smashed down barns and hoovered up whole fields of corn

   4. Poked their trunks into the rooms of a retirement home, causing at least one man to hide under his bed in fright

2. In 2016, a cow destined for live export in Western Australia made a daring bid for freedom. How?

   1. It leapt off the back of a moving cattle truck and bolted down the freeway, causing major traffic jams

   2. It tried to camouflage itself in a herd of horses

   3. 

      It dove into the ocean and swam away from the ship

   4. It broke out of a holding pen and ran through a nearby shopping centre

3. In January 2016, much to the delight of local office workers, Hong Kong police spent hours in the city’s financial district in the pouring rain, armed with riot shields, attempting to catch what?

   1. A thieving goat

   2. An irate donkey

   3. A frightened alpaca

   4. 

      A wild boar

4. With the streets empty of people as coronavirus lockdowns came into force in March 2020, a group of what invaded the town of Llandudno, in north Wales?

   1. A family of albatross

   2. 

      A herd of goats

   3. A flock of parakeets

   4. A herd of Shetland ponies

5. 

   In scenes “reminiscent of Finding Nemo”, Inky, a common New Zealand octopus, escaped from his tank in the National Aquarium of New Zealand, Napier, in the middle of the night in 2016. How do staff believe he did it?

   1. He slid out of his tank when the lid was left slightly ajar, climbed down the side of it, and made his way across the floor of the aquarium to a drainpipe that led to the ocean

   2. He hid inside one of the fixtures in the tank that was taken out for cleaning, climbed down the side of the table and made his way across the floor of the aquarium to a drainpipe that led to the ocean

   3. He had been removed from his main tank for a vet check-up, slid through a tiny hole in his temporary enclosure, and made his way across the floor of the aquarium to a drainpipe that led to the ocean

   4. He unscrewed the feed hatch on the top of his tank, climbed down an electrical cable, and made his way across the floor of the aquarium to a drainpipe that led to the ocean

6. In 2014, two water buffalo were corralled by firefighters after they ran loose on a busy street in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Newtown. How did the emergency services first hear of the matter?

   1. Firefighters responded when the buffalo broke into a warehouse and tripped the fire alarm

   2. Police attended after the buffalo were seen peering into the windows of the Golden Barley pub, startling punters

   3. Police received a report that the buffalo had been chasing pedestrians down King Street

   4. An ambulance was called when a car hit a pole after swerving to avoid a charging buffalo

7. During one bizarre week in June this year, two US states reported multiple herds of cattle breaking out of various enclosures. In one instance, 40 cattle fled a California slaughterhouse and ended up in a Los Angeles suburb. One of them was “rescued” by which famous songwriter?

   1. Diane Warren

   2. Kara DioGuardi

   3. Missy Elliott

   4. Sia Furler

8. In February 2015, two llamas – one black and one white – were chased through the streets and parks by authorities in Sun City, Arizona. How were they eventually caught?

   1. They were shot with a tranquilliser

   2. They were corralled into an enclosed car park

   3. They were lassoed

   4. A local man leapt on top of them and tackled them to the ground

9. In Australia’s Northern Territory in 2015, a rogue camel was captured by NT police after it ran down a major arterial road causing “a bit of traffic mayhem” and then ended up at the golf course of the Royal Australian Air Force base. From where had it escaped?

   1. A station that farms camels for their milk

   2. A circus featuring camel acts

   3. A tourism company offering camel rides

   4. An illegal private zoo

10. On 25 February 2020, two baboons escaped from a truck en route to Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Which of the following statements is not a true part of this story?

    1. A caller to talkback radio insisted he’d seen the baboons and he knew what they were because “they even had shiny red bottoms"

    2. The baboons were zoo animals that had been moved out of the exhibit due to excessive public displays of affection

    3. The baboons were being transported to hospital because one of them needed to undergo a vasectomy, and he needed his “two wives” for company. “They operated as a modern relationship and I’m fine with that,” the federal health minister said.

    4. A sitting senator released a statement on social media welcoming the baboons’ bid for freedom and wishing them well.

Solutions

1:B - While very destructive, there weren’t reports of them being very aggressive. Asian elephants are a protected species in China and habitat loss is a huge problem for the approximately 300 of them left in the wild. “Large-scale human engineering developments have exacerbated the ‘islanding’ of elephant habitats,” Zhang Li, a professor on mammal conservation at Beijing Normal University told the Global Times. “The traditional buffer zones between humans and elephants are gradually disappearing, and the chances of elephants encountering humans naturally increase greatly.”, 2:C - The cow escaped while being loaded onto a ship at Fremantle Harbour in Western Australia. It outsmarted its pursuers when it reached shore, running off along the beach, and was spotted more than 7km away at North Coogee later in the night. It was still missing 24 hours later., 3:D - A Hong Kong tech worker live-streamed the chase for almost four hours. Police were reportedly initially amused by the boar and tried to take selfies with it, but their enthusiasm faded as the hours and heavy rain wore on and the boar evaded their efforts. Animal control workers arrived several hours in and the boar was eventually captured after being shot with a tranquilliser. , 4:B - The Kashmiri goats came down from the nearby headland, Great Orme, and were seen galloping through the streets and munching on hedges. They were originally a gift to Lord Mostyn from Queen Victoria. , 5:A - “The staff and I have been pretty sad. But then, this is Inky, and he’s always been a bit of a surprise octopus,” said Rob Yarrell, national manager of the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier. “I don’t think he was unhappy with us, or lonely, as octopus are solitary creatures. But he is such a curious boy. He would want to know what’s happening on the outside. That’s just his personality.”, 6:C - The animals had apparently escaped from a film set in Sydney Park, St Peters, about 2km away, a witness said. Firefighters from Newtown station eventually managed to contain the buffalo in a makeshift pen., 7:A - The writer responsible for such hits as Can’t Fight the Moonlight, The Rhythm of the Night and Un-Break My Heart contacted the city of Pico Rivera to arrange to have the cow sent to the Farm Sanctuary north of Los Angeles. “These poor babies escaping for their lives,” Warren tweeted., 8:C - The black llama was lassoed at about 12.15pm local time, and the white llama was captured about 15 minutes later., 9:B - The Circus Royale had been in Darwin’s northern suburbs for a few weeks. “It appears the fine men and women of the NT police also have hidden talents in camel wrangling after they quickly tracked it down, secured it and handed it back over to circus personnel,” the NT police said. “And it wasn’t even hump day!”, 10:B - There’s a less funny side to this story: the animals were part of the national baboon colony at Wallacia, 68km west of the Sydney CBD, which supplies baboons for scientific testing. Information about the colony is scant – the number of baboons at the facility is not publicly available and animal welfare organisations told Guardian Australia that requests to tour the facility have been refused.

Scores

1. 0 and above.