I remember driving over the Pali Highway, Kailua-bound, about 10-years ago late one afternoon, when I noticed the cars in front of me all parting to the left or right just before the tunnel after the Pali Lookout exit. Much to my surprise, I swiftly came upon the reason- a lone wild boar ambling up the highway. Only time I’ve seen that in 40+ years.
While we do see the occasional night marauding pig along the side of the road on the Kailua side, pigs in the middle of a highway might be something you see when, well… (you knew it was coming) pigs fly.
I thought of this chance swine swagger a month ago when I read/watched the chase for four escaped zoo-bound zebras on a highway exit in Washington. One of the volunteers who helped corral the striped wonders had worked for 15 years as a rodeo clown (no joke) and bullfighter.
So, 30 miles east of Seattle they had a posse of puzzled people pursuing zebras. Two were forced into a pen and inevitably into a trailer on a nearby farm, while a third was also quickly penned. Ah, but the fourth escapee, perhaps an anti-loper, remained uncaged for five days. You see Shug (as she’s called) probably yearned for days of yore when zebras roamed freely in eastern and southern Africa. But eastern Seattle?
Of course, Shug became an internet sensation, and upon capture, I’m sure many onlookers booed. Now we all know that zebras are used to being booed, but that’s normally associated with the human form of zebras (a/k/a referees) during football or basketball games.
Last March, a calf escaped a slaughterhouse in Brooklyn, New York (you might think that’s an inappropriate locale for a slaughterhouse… well, just “Fuhgeddaboudit”). Happy ending with that one as public outcry ensured that the captured calf was transported to live out her days on an upstate New Jersey farm, but while running loose, the stakes were surely high (I stole that one from an unsubtle, New York news anchor).
When humans have unexpected interactions with, shall we say, non-locals of the animal variety, the reactions are often naturally exciting and surely unrehearsed. Zebras and pigs on highways? A cow running through suburban streets? While sometimes it sadly doesn’t all work out harmlessly and peacefully, when rarely seen or out-of-place animals encroach, it surely catches our attention.
Think about it…