How a couple of capybaras escaped High Park Zoo, leaving a lone male behind

The tale of two furry female fugitives on the lam from Toronto's High Park Zoo has taken an unexpected turn with the revelation they weren't so much like Thelma and Louise, but more like Bonnie and Clyde.

How's that,you ask?Basically when zoo staff met up to figure out what went wrong Tuesday night,they figured out they wereactually looking for amale capybara and a female capybara that were supposed to mate.

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So let's go back to the start and find out how this happened, shall we? Take two.

Picture it, a nice warm Tuesday morning in High Park Zoo, andChewy, a male capybara, islounging around in his spacious pen all by his lonesome, obliviousto the fact everything isabout to supposedlychange.

Chewy is set to move to a new home, while a pair of youngrodents take over his current one.

City parks department workersweretrying to introduce a new male capybaraand female capybara to the enclosure to mate, and remove Chewy, when things suddenly went south.

In their attempts to make the swap, staff lost control of the new couple, hereby dubbed Bonnie and Clyde, according to Megan Price of the Toronto parks department.

The pairof bandits then made their escape, while Chewy was happy to hang out at home in his pen.

So didBonnieand Clydehave a planin the works for awhile? DidChewy scare them off in an effort to keep his home? Or was it maybe just a spur-of-the-moment dash for freedom from a pair of young lovers?

We may never know.

But here are twoof the more colourful localtheories from Twitter.

On Tuesday, HelenSousa, with the parks department,saidthat if you see the two capybaras, don't approach them.

"They aren't dangerous, they won't bite or anything," said Sousa about the rodents, which are herbivores,but "they are very skittish, so they'll run away."

Anothercapybara, this timeon a leash,joinedthe search for the fugitive duoWednesday. But before the large, 68-kilogramrodent named Willow started scouring High Park, the capybara got to knowJohn Northcott this morning on CBC News Network.

Capybara 'captures' CBC reporter

8 years ago

Duration 5:14

Rodent of unusual size visits TV studio, captures John Northcott's heart

Mayor John Tory went to the High Park Zoo on Wednesday afternoon while officials continued to search for the missing pair.

"We're getting reports that they've been seen as far away as Scarborough. It would be quite a feat for these small, relatively young animals in 24 hours to have made their way to Scarborough unless they took the TTC," Torysaid.

"We know raccoons have been on the TTC, so it wouldn't be a first."