On Sunday, the people of Washington state joined forces with law enforcement to remove a rare likelihood from the roads. According to Trooper Rick Johnson, the public relations officer for King County’s Washington. State Patrol District 2, four zebras escaped on Interstate 90 close to the North Bend exit.
Before the public and troopers worked together to accomplish their capture, he shared photos of the animals when three of them were still at large. “This is a first for me and all [State Patrol] troopers involved,” he wrote in a post on X. “Crazy!” According to him, the animals got out while their owner was stopping to lock up their trailer. The animals, privately owned, were being transported to Montana.
A Group Effort by Washington State
About thirty miles from Seattle, members of the public assisted authorities in apprehending stray zebras, including at least one rodeo employee. Three of the zebras — including a baby — had been apprehended by Sunday night, while the fourth was still free.
According to witnesses, drivers prevented the zebra from darting onto the road. “The cars on the offramp kind of pulled over by the guardrail. They decided to line up really close to kind of make a makeshift fence. They did this to keep them from coming up onto the offramp area,” Dan Barnett, an eyewitness, told KING5.
Witnesses claimed that because of their efforts, the zebras unexpectedly surprised neighbors and customers of a neighboring restaurant as they raced through the area.
A Rodeo Clown Saves the Day
“They had a rodeo clown who was on his way, I guess to a rodeo, and they were using him to help corral,” Blomquist Whitney relates. “We have a rodeo clown and zebras running around. I think, ‘This place has officially become a zoo.'” Any information on the whereabouts of the fourth zebra should be reported to the police. It was at 12:52 p.m., the King County Sheriff’s Office received a call, but three of them weren’t taken into custody until 2:36 p.m.
The community not only helped but had fun doing it. A local citizen of the area who assisted in guiding a zebra into someone’s yard shared a video on Facebook. He caption it as , “I can now add zebra wrangler to my resume.” In another video uploaded on Instagram, all four zebras were seen blocking traffic in North Bend while confused vehicles watched.
Although, this is the first time the Troopers of Washington state have seen something like zebras on the lose. This is not the first time an animal escaped, and it was a lot more than fore zebras.
A keeper’s board over a ditch allowed over a hundred rhesus macaques to escape in 1935. There enclosure on Long Island, New York, and the people couldn’t miss it if they tried. A news story in the Evening Post stated that the macaques went berserk in the neighborhood. They were even spotted scaling houses and obstructing train tracks.
It’s not certain how many of the macaques made their way back to their enclosure—some went back willingly, while others were taken into custody.
Zebra are Not the first or the last Animal
A news story in the Evening Post stated that the macaques went berserk in the neighborhood, scaling houses and obstructing train tracks. It’s not certain how many of the macaques made their way back to their enclosure—some went back willingly, while others were taken into custody.
Next to a pride of lions, what could possibly go wrong during an overnight sleepover? This is the question many people were asking after Under the “Roar and Snore” program, which ran from November 2022 to November 2023, visitors may spend the night camping at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia had gone wrong.
Everything was going well until four pups and a male escaped their enclosure early one morning by breaking through the fence. Fortunately, the visitors were whisked away to safety, and the escapees remained hidden from the humans behind yet another fence.
The zookeepers had to tranquilize one cub before the others could return to their enclosure, but with a little prodding, the others did. Although the entire escape only lasted a few hours, the visitors who spent hundreds of dollars to participate in the “Roar and Snore” experience did not
Are the Zebras Trying to Fallowing in His Foot Steps
Though born at the San Diego Zoo, Ken Allen is a Bornean orangutan who decided against living in captivity. Ken, sometimes known as “the Hairy Houdini,” used to occasionally break free from his cage by loosening the fasteners. According to Newsweek, he would even hide his traces by shutting the cage early in the morning. Doing all this just to prevent anyone from knowing he had been out and about.
In 1985, Ken embarked on a well-known series of three high-profile escapes as an adult. Before being taken into custody once more, Ken scaled his enclosure and proceeded to examine the other animals at the San Diego Zoo. He subsequently made two additional escapes in the months that followed, and another one a few years father that.
By Jada Dunkentell
Sources:
NBC News: Police and public capture runaway zebras in Washington state, but one is still missing By Patrick Smith
The Guardian: Rodeo workers help Washington police round up runaway zebras on interstate by Gloria Oladipo
Newser: Rodeo Clown Helps Cops Recapture Zebras By Rob Quinn,
Discover Magazine: These 8 Zoo Escapes Got Pretty Wild By Joshua Rapp Learn
Featured Image Courtesy of Harsh1.0‘s flicker page- Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Juan Pablo González’s flicker page- Creative Commons License
