Escaped capybara 'probably living her best life'

The search for an escaped capybara which fled a zoo four days ago is continuing "around the clock".

Cinnamon fled her habitat at Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World in Telford on Friday and entered woodlands within the zoo grounds.

The last sighting of her was on Saturday, after she managed to get beyond the perimeter fence.

Zoo owner Will Dorrell said he believed Cinnamon had made it to the Humber Brook river, near the attraction's northern boundary, where "she's probably living her best life".

A mass search of the Humber Brook area will take place on Tuesday evening, with the help of a local thermal camera drone operator and keepers from the zoo.

Cinnamon escaped when keepers entered the capybara enclosure to mow the paddock, as she was hidden in long grass near the gate, Mr Dorrell said.

When the gate was opened, she slipped around the side of a tractor to leave the enclosure.

"Our two young capybara here are always trying to work out a different way of trying to cause us headaches," Mr Dorrell said.

"They’re extremely intelligent which a lot of people might not necessarily appreciate.

"She seemed to know what we were going to do and was waiting there ready for that gate to be opened."

While a capybara has never escaped from the zoo before, Mr Dorrell said one managed to dig under a fence to get into an ostrich enclosure a few years ago, but quickly realised she wanted to come back.

Mr Dorrell told the BBC that Cinnamon was not at imminent risk but staff wanted to know where she was so they could bring her back to the zoo and reunite her with her family.

"Right opposite us there's loads of marshland and riverways, that's why we strongly suspect that she's there," he said.

"In the wild they're fantastic swimmers and they'll live on river banks, then whenever they feel threatened they just run into the water and can stay in there for hours at a time."

"We're working round the clock at the moment trying to find her," he said.

Capybaras are native to South America and are the largest living rodents in the world.

Cinnamon was born at the zoo alongside brother Churro, and is now around one year old.

Mr Dorrell said the pair "stuck together" but that Churro was doing fine as their parents still live with them.

"But obviously it would be nice to reunite them," he said.

Cinnamon has not been spotted since Saturday, where she was seen on Humber Lane.

She was also spotted on Friday night via the zoo's trail cameras and almost went back to her enclosure, but was not close enough for keepers to do anything.

The public have been urged to report sightings to the zoo, but not to approach her for fear of scaring her and driving her further way.

"She's very very tame, she wouldn't hurt anyone, she's just very likely to be timid," Mr Dorrell said.

"If it goes on [much] longer, she's not at imminent risk. 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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