Four zebras escaped from a transport trailer outside of Seattle, Washington, on Sunday en route from a farm to a petting zoo in Montana, leading police and area residents on a wild chase, according to reports from the Washington Post. The finely orchestrated escape began when the driver noticed an issue with the trailer and pulled off to attend to repairs. The group—two mares, a filly, and a stallion—all bolted to the four points of the compass. The stallion cleared a fence and vanished into the woods.
As luck would have it, a rodeo bull wrangler and his wife, a horse trainer, were driving down I-90 at just the right time.
“We just happened to be at that exit when [we heard] that there were zebras on the loose, so be cautious,” said David Danton, the rodeoman. “That was kind of strange.”
“My wife and I read animals very well, and we’ve helped catch lots of loose animals — buffalo that have gotten loose, racehorses,” he added. “We thought, ‘All right, let’s go see if we can help.’”
In another fantastical turn of events, a resident nearby had a large horse trailer that could be used as a portable holding pen. The makeshift posse of zebrahands used ropes and panels to coax the two mares into the trailer, while the filly was lassoed separately.
The trio of re-captured striped prisoners have been carried on to their final destination at the petting zoo, while their fourth cohort remains a free Equidae. The absconder, named Z, was last seen at 3 PM on Monday afternoon. The community has been using infrared drones and search-and-rescue dogs to track him, to no avail. One can hope that the native cougars and bears do not find him first.