Cinnamon, the missing capybara, is back in captivity in a Shropshire zoo after spending a week on the run in some nearby woods.
After a huge search operation – involving 20 people and a thermal drone – the 25kg (55lb) rodent was found just 250 metres from her paddock at Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World in Telford on Friday.
Her daring escape from her enclosure when the gate was opened for a tractor made headlines around the globe, with zookeepers failing to lure the fugitive rodent out of her hiding place using apples, pears and capybara sounds and scents, or to discover her location in the thick forest with a thermal drone.
In the end, the capybara caper that had captured the attention of the world ended when the zoo’s co-owner, Becky Dorrell, followed Cinnamon’s tracks to a large pond, shrouded by reeds and furnished with low-hanging tree branches.
A team of seven then herded the capybara – who is about the size of a labrador – into a cage and carried her back to the zoo.
“She looks nice and fit and healthy,” said Will Dorrell, the other co-owner of the zoo, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Where she was, she was living her best life. The area’s a capybara’s paradise … but unfortunately, we have a responsibility to make sure that we don’t just leave non-native animals in the British countryside.”
He added that Cinnamon also seemed “very happy” to be back in the zoo with her brother and would be checked over by a vet later on Saturday, before being reunited with her parents. “The best thing for her in the long run is to be back with us, because we can then monitor her health, make sure she’s fit and healthy and lives a long and fruitful life.”
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He said the media attention the story has garnered was “absolutely insane”, and that Cinnamon’s health and wellbeing was his top priority at the moment, rather than any considerations about how to capitalise on her newfound fame.
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