An interstate has been closed. A drone has been deployed. Professional tracking groups and trained dogs have been dispatched.
They’re all on the case of a missing zebra that has been running wild for nearly a week in Rutherford County, Tenn., eluding efforts to recapture it.
The latest sighting was on Friday, when sheriff’s deputies tracking the startled zebra with a drone spotted it trotting through a field near Christiana, a community about 40 miles south of Nashville, prompting them to urge people to avoid the area.
“We don’t want to scare the zebra,” Cpl. Sean White of the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “We need time to get him to calm down.”
Whoever owns the zebra — the person’s name has not been released — only had the animal for less than a day, having “obtained” it on the night of May 30 before it escaped the next morning, the sheriff’s office said.
Lisa Marchesoni, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said it was not clear how the zebra got loose or why the man owned it, but dispatchers received a call on the morning of May 31 that the zebra was running though traffic on Interstate 24.
“As far as I know, that is the only time we have a had a zebra running on the interstate in Rutherford County,” Ms. Marchesoni said.
Deputies quickly swung into action, closing part of the highway and reopening it “after the zebra disappeared into the woods,” the sheriff’s office said.
Ms. Marchesoni said that deputies were primarily responsible for ensuring the zebra did not run into traffic, and that it was mostly up to the owner to corral it.
It was not clear who owned the zebra previously, she said.
The current owner told the sheriff’s office that he was using “several professional tracking groups and K9s” to help him capture the zebra.
There have been several tantalizing sightings in and around Rutherford County over the last several days.
A home security camera recorded the zebra trotting around a corner on a quiet suburban street, its hooves clopping on the pavement.
A driver spotted it galloping through tall grass on the side of a road.
Social media attention inevitably followed, with memes and images generated by artificial intelligence of the zebra sipping a cocktail at a bar in Murfreesboro, dressed in a Middle Tennessee State University hat and T-shirt, having its mane trimmed at a local barbershop and stepping into the middle of a NASCAR race. Residents have named the zebra Ed.
“People are fascinated by the zebra,” Ms. Marchesoni said.
Carson Daniel, a manager at Miller’s Grocery in Christiana, said the owner was a customer who keeps other unusual animals, including a bison, on his farm.
“We know the guy, so it’s not really that much of a surprise that he would have a zebra, per se,” Mr. Daniel said. “But just like anybody else, we’re shocked that there’s a zebra loose.”
The zebra’s owner was notified on Friday that it had been spotted near Christiana, and a veterinarian had been summoned, the sheriff’s office said. But it was not clear that the zebra was any closer to being captured or how, exactly, its owner planned to accomplish that feat.
“They’re kind of a flighty animal” accustomed to running from predators on the African plains, said Jim Bartoo, a spokesman for the Nashville Zoo, which has two zebras.
“That makes capturing an animal like this — getting it to go where you want to go — a little more problematic,” Mr. Bartoo said. “It’s not like somebody’s pet horse. It’s a wild animal and it’s going to flee from anything that it sees as a danger.”
Michael Levenson covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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