[URBAN NOTE] On the search for the second capybara in High Park

[rfmcdonald]

In the National Post, Nick Faris writes about the search for the second of two capybaras still on the loose.

“(The second) one’s going to be posing its own challenges,” said Ben Lovatt, a local museum owner who has participated extensively in the chase, along with park staff and rescuers from the Toronto Wildlife Centre.

“We’re giving it some time. This one’s going to require a lot more study and observation before people actually go in.”

The first capybara was retrieved Sunday evening in the park’s southeast corner, near the drainage area of a pond, where passersby had spotted them in the days before the rescue. It came nearly three weeks after the animals — new arrivals to the High Park Zoo from a breeding program in Texas — absconded from their pen and disappeared into the park’s array of trees, trails and creeks.

The search party, since then, has relied heavily on reported sightings, and on the help of Lovatt and a few other private citizens, who have spent dozens of hours in recent weeks tracking the animals’ movements and behaviour.

That reconnaissance led to the first capture, said Megan Price, a spokeswoman for Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation. In a game of wits, they don’t plan to stray from what has worked.

“The second plan is the same as the first plan: To narrow down, through sightings, the area that it might be located, and then to spend a couple of days looking at its patterns and its habits and where it is, so that we can really situate the traps in the best possible locations,” Price said.