Runaway Zebra Sighted in National Forest

UPDATE May 3, 2024 1:00 PM CDT

Three runaway zebras were quickly recaptured near Seattle on Sunday with the help of a rodeo clown who happened to be passing, but a fourth is still roaming the area. KUOW reports that North Bend residents have nicknamed the zebra Z and they've been searching high and low for it, but rescuers are worried that all the attention might scare it deeper into the surrounding national forest. Trail cameras show that Z is in good health, though a mountain lion has been spotted in the area. Horse trainer Dallas Clark, part of a group that searches for stray animals in the Cascade Mountains, tells the BBC that volunteers on horseback have been trying to find the animal. "None of us has ever done a zebra before so this is all new," he says.

Apr 29, 2024 4:36 PM CDT

Members of the public, including at least one rodeo worker, helped police corral runaway zebras around 30 miles from Seattle on Sunday. Washington state trooper Rick Johnson said the animals escaped just off Interstate 90 near North Bend when their trailer was being secured at an exit, NBC News reports. By Sunday night, three of the zebras, including a baby, had been recaptured while a fourth was still at large. A private owner was transporting the zebras to Montana when they escaped. Witnesses said drivers helped keep the zebras from running onto the highway.

"The cars on the offramp kinda pulled over by the guardrail and kinda lined up really close to kind of make a makeshift fence to keep them from coming up onto the offramp area," witness Dan Barnett tells KING5. Thanks to their efforts, witnesses said, the zebras ran through a neighborhood, surprising patrons at a nearby restaurant and other residents, the AP reports.

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Whitney Blomquist tells KOMO News that the zebras ran into her backyard and were corralled after they went to a neighbor's yard. "They had a rodeo clown who was on his way, I guess to a rodeo, and they were using him to help corral," Blomquist says. "We got zebras on the loose, we've got a rodeo clown. I'm like, 'Cool, we've officially turned into a zoo here.'" Police have asked the public to report any sightings of the fourth zebra. (More zebra stories.)