The Best Animal Escapes and Breakouts of 2025

1. Ed the Zebra

Some creatures are sent to a zoo and spend years there. Ed the zebra, however, could not abide by such measures. Though he arrived at a sanctuary in Christiana, Tennessee, on May 30th, he escaped by the next day. Residents spotted him running through the neighborhoods, calmly enjoying the sights. His carefree attitude made Ed a viral sensation. While emergency personnel frantically looked for him, Ed carried on in a casual way.

It took another week for officials to catch up with the absconding zebra. On June 8th, the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office confirmed that Ed had been caught and airlifted back to confinement. Already a social media star, Ed's profile was raised even higher when a video showed him being carried in a net by a helicopter. The video ended up being shared millions of times over.

2. Estrella’s Instincts

Sometimes animal escapes come at the expense of other, smaller animals. Take this more recent breakout story from the Abilene Zoo in Texas. A 2-year-old jaguar named Estrella managed to escape her enclosure on a brisk morning in mid-May. No sooner had she escaped than Estrella made a beeline for a nearby spider monkey exhibit. One park employee discovered the empty jaguar enclosure, and they found Estrella lying on top of the spider monkey enclosure. After they shot her with a tranquilizer dart and returned her to her cage, they discovered a tragedy.

Estrella had managed to attack a spider monkey during her daring escape. Unfortunately, the 19-year-old spider monkey named Ba suffered serious injuries during the attack, and park officials were forced to euthanize him. Ba had been transported to the Abilene Zoo years earlier, after he was confiscated from a group of illegal wildlife traffickers. Luckily, no other animals were hurt in the escape. While sad, this escape illustrates that even years in a cage don't diminish a predator's instincts.

3. Three Cerval Cats

Perhaps the most recent daring animal escape occurred in Berks County, Pennsylvania. According to FOX29 Philadelphia, three serval cats escaped from a Berks County wildlife center after a storm caused a tree to fall and damage a fence. Sensing opportunity, the three serval cats escaped through a hole in the fence. They escaped from the Cricket Wildlife Center in Alburtis Township during the first week of November.

Since the story first broke last week, two of the cats have been captured by animal control officials and emergency personnel. One of the serval cats, however, remains on the loose. It was last spotted near Huffs Church Road in District Township. It's hard not to root for the wildcat to keep going.

4. Mac the Wallaby

Opportunities come in many forms. When a female wallaby named Mac escaped from an animal education zoo in Oswego, New York, on June 16th, the organization used the crisis to its advantage. They racked up thousands of views by providing daily social media updates regarding sightings of the escaped Wallaby. Even the owner of Grace and Glory Animals, Dan Oostdyk, got in on the action. People likened the search to the hunt for a rare Pokémon. For her part, Mac was finally caught by animal control officials on June 25th.

5. A Kangaroo Named Sheila

In late April, several Alabama residents got quite the surprise when they spotted a kangaroo hopping down the highway. Indeed, an escaped kangaroo named Sheila shut down both sides of Interstate 85 in Macon County, between Montgomery and Auburn, for several hours. Eventually, police officers and the animal's owner managed to wrangle Sheila and return her home unharmed. According to an by Associated Press, the kangaroo is a pet owned by a family that runs a pumpkin patch and petting zoo.

6. Hungry Bears

One of the most belly-aching stories of animal escapes this year happened in southwest England. Two bears named Mish and Lucy managed to escape through an open back door in their enclosure. They breathed the sweet air of freedom, only to be tempted by food in a nearby kitchen. The zoo had just received a fresh shipment of fruits and vegetables. Instead of leaving the zoo for good, Mish and Lucy headed to the kitchen, where they promptly destroyed everything in sight. According to the park's director of zoological operations, Mark Habben, “They ate all of the bananas, apples, fresh food and the vegetables.” They also ate a week’s worth of honey that the staff typically uses to prepare meals for them.

Mish and Lucy's escape prompted an emergency protocol, which included the response of armed personnel. In the end, however, both bears were pretty casual about the whole ordeal. After an hour-long feast, Mish calmly walked back to the enclosure. Lucy was not far behind. She happily responded to a bell that both bears were trained to follow.

7. The River Otter Duo

One of the most adorable animal escapes of 2025 also became a story of possible redemption. In late March of this year, two otters named Louie and Ophelia escaped from New Zoo Adventure Park in northeastern Wisconsin. The pair was quickly spotted by park officials on closed-circuit cameras, so traps were laid. Luckily for these North American river otters, however, some raccoons interfered with the traps. According to the story, one raccoon set off a trap right before one of the otters entered it. Though they never ventured too far from the zoo, only Ophelia was caught. After her capture on April 1st (which was not an April Fool's Joke), park officials announced, “due to the length of time that Louie has been missing, we believe he has made the decision to be a wild otter.”

If any escaped animal was suited for the environment, it was a North American river otter. Even so, it is almost insulting that park officials pretended like Louie had any choice in his freedom without taking it into his own hands. Let’s hope he’s thriving somewhere out there.

8. Sauce the Boss

The award for animal escape artist with the best name(s) goes to Sauce Boss out of Colorado. According to a story published by the Guardian, a bull escaped while being unloaded for a rodeo in Snowmass Village, Colorado, on July 2nd. He forced his way through a gap in a fence and took off. A few days later, cowboys managed to catch him in a lasso, but the bull escaped again. Finally, his owner caught him just in time for Sauce Boss to make his debut at the Snowmass Rodeo. According to conflicting reports, the escape artist bull’s name was either Sauce Boss or Twinkle Toes.

9. A Peacock Named Raul

Perhaps the most exciting pet escape story of the year involves a peacock in the Bronx named Raul. According to FOX5, a peacock escaped from the Bronx Zoo in late April and ran through the busy streets of New York’s Bronx borough. Some good Samaritans attempted to the capture the bird with little luck. At one point, the peacock bit a man named Mike. Eventually, it was captured and returned to the Bronx Zoo. According to one eyewitness, the neighborhood made a day out of the escape. Nearby resident Chris Gutter said, “A peacock running around the neighborhood for the evening is wild, but at the end of the day the whole neighborhood came out, and we named him Raul, they say he’s Puerto Rican.”