The search for a runaway pet zebra that had evaded capture for nearly a week in Rutherford County, Tenn., came to an end.
The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office, which had been searching for the animal that residents named Ed, said in a statement on Sunday that the zebra had been recaptured and returned to its owner.
In a video the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook, the zebra’s head and legs can be seen dangling from inside a net as it spun in the sky while being airlifted by a yellow helicopter. The authorities said that the intrepid zebra was found was in a pasture near Interstate 24.
The owner of the zebra — whose identity has not been released — got the animal on May 30 and had it for less than a day before it escaped the next morning, the sheriff’s office said in an earlier statement.
How the zebra escaped or why the man owned it was still not immediately clear, but dispatchers received a report on May 31 that a zebra had been spotted darting in traffic on Interstate 24.
“This is the first zebra to escape in Rutherford County as far as I know in the 43 years I lived here,” Lisa Marchesoni, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said on Sunday.
He had escaped into a wooded area and disappeared until it was spotted Thursday, the authorities said.
On Friday, a police drone spotted the zebra dashing through a field near Christiana, a community about 40 miles south of Nashville.
Drivers on Interstate 24 also saw him scamper across east and westbound lanes on Saturday, the sheriff’s office said.
On Sunday morning, deputies worked with the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to find the zebra.
With several sightings of the zebra in the area, social media lit up with memes and images generated by artificial intelligence of the animal, including one that dressed him in a Middle Tennessee State University hat and T-shirt.
Johnny Diaz is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news from Miami.
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