Locals along England's River Itchen have been told to keep their distance from an unlikely fugitive: a 9-month-old capybara named Samba. The rodent slipped out of Marwell Zoo in Hampshire on March 17 and was recently spotted sunbathing by the river near Winchester—until a dog startled her and she bolted into the water, reports the Independent. "I thought it was a deer—you don't casually see a capybara on your walks," Claudie Paddick tells the BBC. Marwell Zoo says specialist sniffer dogs have repeatedly picked up Samba's scent, allowing the search zone to be tightened and thermal drones to be deployed, though she remains on the loose a week on, per the Independent.
Samba escaped alongside a capybara companion named Tango after they'd been transported from a farm and wildlife park in Ipswich, per a release seen by People. The pair fled from a temporary pen they were being kept in while receiving health assessments. "Tango didn't stray too far, hiding in bushes in the zoo," and was quickly retrieved, per the zoo's announcement. "Samba was more adventurous, and our specialist teams have been looking for her relentlessly since then."
Residents are being asked to look around not only rivers, but gardens, ponds, and other waterways—especially after dark, when Samba is more likely to move—but not to approach or attempt to capture her, per the Independent. Only her keepers and zoo staff should go near her, the zoo says, warning that she could become stressed. The zoo has launched a review into how the pair managed to escape.