Samba the Missing Capybara Caught on Camera After 7 Months on the Run

Can a capybara really hide in the English countryside for more than six months? Apparently, yes. Samba, a one-year-old capybara, got caught on camera again this October. She ran off from Marwell Zoo, near Winchester in Hampshire, back in March. And she still hasn't come home. So what actually happened? Let's go through it month by month.

Samba's a young female capybara. If you've never seen one, think of a giant guinea pig. Capybaras come from South America, and they're the biggest rodents on the planet. The BBC says they've got stocky bodies, short legs and partly webbed feet.

Remember those webbed feet. They come back later.

Samba reached Marwell Zoo with her sister, Tango. Keepers put the two of them in a temporary enclosure. You can probably guess what came next.

Samba got out on 17 March. She'd been at the zoo for less than 24 hours. She broke out of the temporary enclosure she shared with Tango, and the keepers grabbed Tango pretty fast. Samba? Gone. People in many countries started following her story.

Over the next few months, people kept saying they'd seen her. According to the BBC, she turned up near a pub, and someone saw her lying in the sun on a riverbank. Once, a dog walker spotted her on the bank of a river. She just slipped into the water and swam off. With webbed feet, why wouldn't she?

Back at Marwell, Tango got a new companion. Keepers brought in a male capybara called Ripple to live with her. The zoo calls Samba the more adventurous sister, and honestly, that might be why she's still out there.

In August, the zoo said it had photos showing where Samba was. After that sighting, the team put up wildlife cameras in the area.

It worked. This month the cameras picked up new, grainy pictures of her. The BBC ran the story on 27 October. The photos were taken on private land, and nobody's saying exactly where.

You'd think the keepers could just walk over and pick her up. They can't. Marwell Zoo says bringing Samba home is "a gradual and carefully managed process". The team knows roughly where she is. But, in the zoo's words, "it isn't simply a case of being able to approach and collect her."

Stress is the big problem. The zoo said scaring or disturbing her could make her leave the area, and then getting her back safely would be even harder. So the keepers are going slow:

The zoo also thanked people for their "continued interest and support".

There's no return date yet. Right now, the feeding station and the cameras are all the zoo really has. If Samba keeps showing up at the same place, keepers might get a quiet moment to catch her. Until that happens, everyone's just waiting for the next photo to pop up.

Okay, Samba lives in a zoo. But if you've got a pet at home, a few things in her story are worth thinking about:

Guinea pigs are small rodents too, and they can be little escape artists. Our guinea pig care guide explains how to set up a safe cage. Want something lighter? Read why guinea pigs popcorn. It's a fun one.

Samba got out in less than a day, and she's still out there seven months later. Her keepers aren't rushing her. They're being patient, and that could be exactly what gets her home. Remember the Finland puppy livestream? Millions tuned in. Samba's the same kind of story, one animal that lots of people can't stop checking up on.

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