Runaway Zoo Capybara Spotted Frolicking in Field Days After Her Escape: 'Living Her Best Life'
Cinnamon escaped her enclosure at Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World on Sept. 14 and has still not returned home
Cinnamon the capybara is on the run — and living her best life!
The "beloved" critter escaped her habitat at Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World in Telford, England, on Friday, Sept. 14. The following day, she fled the zoo grounds entirely.
As zoo staff and volunteers worked to capture the year-old capybara, zoo owner Will Dorrell told BBC that Cinnamon was "probably living her best life" — and he was right.
For the first time since Sept. 15, Cinnamon was spotted out in the world. The U.K. zoo announced on Wednesday, Sept. 18., that the capybara — the world's largest rodent species — was seen frolicking in the fields and woodlands near the zoo.
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"Thanks to the tireless efforts of our team last night along with a couple of local volunteers (including a thermal drone operator) we managed to locate Cinnamon. It turns out that she is currently living in a field and section of woodland right next to the zoo,” the zoo wrote on Facebook alongside an overhead shot of the runaway rodent sitting in a green field.
Cinnamon was spotted less than 200 meters (or 656 feet) from her home, according to the zoo, which also noted that she managed to evade the search team's recapture efforts.
"Despite efforts last night to recapture her, she managed to hide in dense thicket, and the decision was made to place down live traps rather than attempt to catch her by hand and cause further stress (or drive her further away)," the zoo said, explaining that live traps are "essentially cages with an automatic door that cause no harm to the animal."
Hoo Zoo hopes that the contraptions will "allow us to recapture Cinnamon without any further stress" and will continue to monitor the creature's situation. In the meantime, however, Cinnamon is not in any danger.
"If it goes on [much] longer, she's not at imminent risk," Dorrell told BBC. "She can very comfortably survive the weather, even though they prefer it a bit warmer, and locally, there's loads of food and habitat."
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Dorrell added to the outlet that Cinnamon first escaped her habitat when zookeepers entered the area to mow. She was hiding in the long grass near the enclosure's gate.
According to the zoo owner, her escape was unsurprising to the zoo's staff. "Our two young capybara here are always trying to work out a different way of trying to cause us headaches," Dorrell told BBC.
"They're extremely intelligent, which a lot of people might not necessarily appreciate," he continued, adding that Cinnamon "seemed to know what we were going to do and was waiting there, ready for that gate to be opened."
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Cinnamon's brother Churro, also 1, and parents all await her return to the zoo. While getting the capybara back to her family is the top priority, the zoo is already reviewing her escape to prevent future incidents.
"She got out, unfortunately, because while the gate was opened while they took a tractor mower in there, she managed to slip around the side of the tractor mower and get out from the open gate, which has never previously been an issue in over 10 years," Dorrell told The Guardian.
"But we're now reviewing to make sure that it can't happen again. So, going forward, there'll be another gate in, something like a double gate, and it'll be a two-person job as well to stop this from happening," he added.
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