Social networks take animal escapes to a whole new level

THE NOW video – Animals seem to be escaping more and more these days, or at least that’s what you'd be led to believe by media reports. Perhaps it could be that a lot of critters are just getting their own social media accounts? As recounted in the video above, Las Vegas is the latest city to be challenged with some escapees. A pair of 5-foot tall chimpanzees managed to get out of their enclosure at a private residence and run free for a few hours. The Bronx Zoo got some mixed press last year when one of their cobra snakes slipped through her cage and went missing for several days. The story went viral when an account called @BronxZoosCobra starting sending out snarky tweets (the posts continued after the real cobra was caged). A penguin from Tokyo holds the longest escape record, having been on the lam for 82 days before getting nabbed swimming in a bay. He didn’t have a Twitter account: could that be the key to the longevity of his freedom? Japan clearly wants to stay on top of their exotic animal escapes—a video indicates a zoo-escape drill, complete with a paper rhino and training police officers. It’s very strange, and yet, it may work. We’ve never heard about any escaped rhinos in Japan now have we? [Sources: cobras, turtles, penguin, drill]