Bonus: Great Escapes

[00:00:02] Begin PodFix Network transmission in 3...2...1... This is BewilderBeasts, an infotainment show dedicated to inspiring curiosity for all ages by investigating the ways animals intersect at humanity. I am not a historian, an ethologist, a researcher, a scientist, a zoologist, a trained audio engineer or an expert in...well, anything.

[00:00:26] Y'all, I'm lucky if I can remember to put my clean laundry in the dryer before it gets funky. And while I make every effort to present things as accurately as I can with a fun flair, I'm going to mess up. And that's okay.

[00:00:38] I hope I've given you a nice place to jump off from on your own adventures into curiosity. Or at the very least, I've given you the key to win your next round of trivia. Hello and welcome to BewilderBeasts.

[00:01:11] I'm your host Melissa Mckee McGrath, recording, sitting on my knees in this tiny closet because my kid did an art project and needed the table for my podcast equipment. On this Patreon exclusive, this month's show is all about hilarious animal escapes.

[00:01:27] Buckle in, get a doodle pad and let's do this! Hi everyone, this one is just for you and I'd like to welcome new Patreon Zoe. Thank you for joining us Zoe, I hope you enjoyed these little episodes that are for you. Thanks as always for supporting this show.

[00:01:55] You should be getting a goodie in your mailbox for everyone here in the next few weeks if I can just settle on some designs. And if you want, you can check your Patreon mailbox.

[00:02:03] I'm going to make some pins for you guys as a special thanks and have some designs picked out. But if there's an animal that you would love to see represented either on a pin or other merch, just let me know.

[00:02:14] I just realized that there are no dogs represented in the mockups that I've done so far, which seems like an oversight given my actual job. But there's Spy Kitty, Cocaine Bear, Bequette the Punk Rock Goat from the Patreon Episode

[00:02:29] 7, Lipstick Butt Science and Pyromaniac Pigeon from Olga of Kiev. So check those out and if you have a preference of which one you really like, let me know. And if I should do other designs, let me know too.

[00:02:45] Alright, so with all that out of the way, stay warm, stay toasty, tuck in, this is going to be a silly ride. Let's go! Okay, so if you are an adult, absolutely an adult, who listens to my other show, this

[00:03:05] story is going to be featured in an upcoming Totally Possum. But this story is also what honestly put me on track for this whole series of Animal Escapes. So this is going to be the PG-3rd, the PG version or G rated version of that very

[00:03:22] much not PG rated version of this story. So this story comes by way of Bonner Springs, Kansas and is a bit of a holiday theme but it's never too early for Christmas. Our story starts on the Bonner Springs Police Department Facebook page the week of 11-28-2021.

[00:03:40] If you get a chance to check out this blotter, it's gold. But I'll skip ahead to the relevant item dated December 5th, 2021. Officers in Animal Control spent Sunday chasing a loose camel through the city. So far, so good.

[00:03:57] So evidently this chase began on golf carts at the golf course. Officers like commandeered a golf cart but then they realized that the cart couldn't quite get up to speed because, well as the cops learned, camels can run up to 40 miles an hour.

[00:04:12] How fast does a golf cart go you might ask? Well 12-14 miles per hour if you're on a particularly zippy model. This camel was significantly faster. So the camel obviously got away and went for a stroll on the K-7 which I think might be

[00:04:29] either a highway or at least a major throughway through this city. It then meandered camel style into some neighborhoods. Can you just pause and wait a minute and think about what this would look like?

[00:04:41] Your mom is just washing dishes, looking out the kitchen window in Kansas and seeing a camel looking back at you like sup. At this point, the Animal Control officer bailed out of her vehicle, chased the and she successfully caught it by lasso. Like old west style lassoing.

[00:05:02] Kansas, what is up? This is awesome. Let's go back for a minute. Why a camel? How a camel? What the camel? Well the camel was part of a drive-through nativity scene at the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame.

[00:05:16] Apparently after the camel was lassoed, it was returned to its owners and will Go back to doing camel things, police said on another Facebook post. Like what? Spitting? Chewing? Planning the next walkabout on the K-7?

[00:05:31] So our next animal escape is a sea lion who was rescued not on a rock, not in the sea, but somehow crossed a busy freeway, crossed four lanes of traffic, sea lion style like bopping, orf, orf, orfing, etc. and got to a median on a highway.

[00:05:46] Luckily, the Sea World Rescue Team of San Diego was able to help the 200 pound flippered sea beast where it was taken in for a health assessment, rehabilitation, and a stern talking to about road safety. This is not this particular sea lion's first foray into traveling the world, expanding

[00:06:05] his horizons. Last November, this same sea lion was rescued by the International Airport and, According to the article, last month was seen at the Point Loma Naval Base on Mission Beach Boardwalk and near Adélie by the Bay.

[00:06:19] I mean, that's gotta be one heck of a hoagie if this beastie rolled all the way down the boardwalk to Adélie instead of eating all the things that sea lions actually eat. Let's travel now to the northern border of South Carolina.

[00:06:36] Stick with me, we're at Cowpens National Battlefield. Ominous. Turns out Cowpens National Battlefield is a preserved battlefield from the Revolutionary War when soon to be Americans were battling England and the fabulously dressed King George.

[00:06:52] Or, as you might know him, the guy who voiced Olaf the Snowman in the hit musical Hamilton. What comes next? Well, you'll see. While this field was important for lots of reasons relating to the war for the American Independence, but I couldn't understand any of it.

[00:07:07] Instead, we're going to focus on its name, Cowpens, because that's what it really was at the time. A giant field for cows. It is still a giant field, but now with memorabilia, a snack bar, a parking lot, and picnic tables.

[00:07:21] Can I get a large soft serve cone and medium black decaf? You know, as our forefathers intended. But this story isn't about the park, but instead about the animal who went on the lamb. No not a cow. Not a lamb. A llama on the lamb? And Cowpens?

[00:07:39] While visitors to the park, including school trips, will often see turkeys, deer, bunnies, birds, butterflies, etc., it is unusual to see a llama. But that's exactly what happened when fourth graders from the Buffalo Elementary School visited Cowpens National Battlefield Park.

[00:07:53] Quote, these youngsters, as well as dozens of other visitors over the course of the weekend, spotted this exotic ungulate munching on grass alongside the tour road. Turns out the llama was named George.

[00:08:06] As in the king, played by the guy who voiced Olaf from Frozen, we've already been over this, was chased off of his property by a big jerk, another male llama. George peaced out, saw a big inviting field, and decided to join the touring school groups

[00:08:20] and tourists getting their history on. As George was quite disinterested in leaving Cowpens, it's nice here. Lots of grass, peace and quiet, no jerk male chasing him off. Park officials in Llama Rescue had to team up to help George leave the park and find a good home.

[00:08:36] He couldn't go back to the farm he escaped from, the former owners couldn't safely keep both George and the other llama safe. So George would have been in trouble. But luckily the Llama Rescue group knew exactly what to do.

[00:08:50] They used a bit of food, a bit of luck, and a lot of Coco Chanel. Not the perfume, but a female llama named Coco Chanel. Using food, luck, and the lady llama, they were able to, well, convince George.

[00:09:03] This fenced-in pen in the middle of Cowpens was perfect for a llama. Once he was safely caught, he was taken to his new foster family in North Carolina. So while people went to Cowpens to learn about history or maybe hope for cows, which

[00:09:17] I'm led to believe there are no cows, they left with a lot of information on the flanking of Sir Bonestre, Tarleson's British army, and a lot about llama husbandry and care. And like all events like this, thank goodness for social media, the park was able to

[00:09:33] keep thousands of people following the llama drama saga up to date. So now let's leave Cowpens and head back in time to 1966. An African fishing eagle found a hole in his enclosure, and it was just big enough for him to fly to freedom.

[00:09:52] Visitors and tourists saw that he took comfort upon a lamppost outside of Sheridan Park Hotel. Maybe he just wanted to know what it is that people do in a hotel room before cable television.

[00:10:02] Getting bored, we can assume, because aforementioned lack of cable TV in the 60s, he flew to a suburban residential area. One hero tried to lure him down with hot dogs and rolls, but given that they weren't

[00:10:15] fish as the name African fishing eagle might imply, he snootily tossed his beak in the air and eventually just moved on to Virginia where he took in the sights along the Potomac River. And this time, hallelujah, the people here at least thought well maybe we should

[00:10:30] feed him fish. So they brought him fish and he was, as we can infer, quite pleased. Given how happy he was there in the trees and being fed fish by the spectators, zookeepers thought well this is it. This is our moment and our time to shine.

[00:10:45] We can get him. So under the cover of almost darkness, they approached the roosting African fishing eagle with nets. The key here is almost darkness y'all. Eagles have incredible vision. All this African fishing eagle needed was a little bit of light and he had it in the

[00:11:05] brightness of the full moon. As the Washington Post articulated beautifully, quote, but very bright moonlight meant the bird could see anyone approaching him with nets. And though the African fishing eagle liked to fish, he really hated nets.

[00:11:21] Either he got really tired of flying at night escaping zookeepers with nets, or he just realized his bread was buttered perfectly fine, thank you very much, or he just needed a vacation and going on your three of this pandemic can relate.

[00:11:36] The eagle just said, eh, home is where you hang your hat. And luckily he had a nice hat rack in his enclosure, which he returned to on his own. So the thing about being a zookeeper is that you're really effective only if you

[00:11:50] get to keep the animals in the zoo. And I'm just going to quote this directly from time.com because it's so perfect. In July 1964, a zookeeper at the Fleish Hacker Zoo now called the San Francisco Zoo, which we've discussed on the Wilderbeest when the little lemur was kidnapped,

[00:12:08] lemur napped and the little boy found him in the tot lot. So back in the 60s, the San Francisco Zoo had a really bad day. First, the zookeeper got a call from the police saying that they had captured

[00:12:20] 13 buffalo that zoo director Kerry Baldwin didn't even know were missing. Five hours later, they received another call. This time, unbeknownst to Baldwin, a 300 pound pygmy hippopotamus had escaped and was taking a stroll down a nearby road.

[00:12:36] A short while later, a large South African rodent called an agouti, a gouty? He's very cute. You can look him up. A-G-O-U-T-I made a run for it. A dramatic chase ensued and the little guy was eventually captured.

[00:12:51] At the end of the day, Baldwin told the Associated Press that he would review zoo security. Lastly, I want to introduce all y'all to my favorite, Ken Allen. Ken Allen is an orangutan. Now don't call him a monkey.

[00:13:06] He kept breaking out of his enclosure in the 1980s and given that it was the 80s, I can only assume that he got out a few times. Nothing happened to have substance so it's fine.

[00:13:16] So Ken Allen, an animal who evolved to use hands and feet and anything really to climb the nearly impossible things like a flat wall in a zoo, you only need a few bumps if you're an orangutan to do impressive things.

[00:13:30] He was later called Harry H-A-I-R-Y Houdini as in the magician. First he hopped a retaining wall like he was busting out of easy to escape jail and then he toured the zoo like he was a tourist. He was found just checking out the other animals.

[00:13:45] When zookeepers found him they just casually led him back to his enclosure, then built up his retaining wall by four feet. That's about the size of a fourth grader. They added a moat, some obstacles but hehehe orangutan.

[00:14:00] As we're only a few sentences in you can guess, he got out again. This time he was less cool with just being a spectator. This time he used his valuable freedom and time out of his enclosure to throw rocks

[00:14:15] at the other male orangutan. He was sent back to his pen, a few other measures were put in place and then he found a crowbar. An employee had left it behind so he just, instead of using

[00:14:26] it himself, Ken Allen handed it to another orangutan named Vicky. Now he has an accomplice. Vicky then pried open a window and let out Ken Allen. At this point people were just making t-shirts and bumper stickers that said free Ken Allen and other schmaltzy merch.

[00:14:44] There was even a song called the Ballad of Ken Allen written by Dennis Gerstin who now goes by David Gerstin. So you can look that up if that's your cup of tea. I'm imagining a banjo,

[00:14:57] maybe some banana sounds, whatever that sounds like. But anyway, the zoo ultimately threw down $45,000 in the 1980s to hire engineers, professional mountain climbers to find handholds that they couldn't find as non-professional mountain climbers, electric fencing and the

[00:15:13] moat which ultimately failed when the moat dried up a few years later and Ken Allen decided to go back out and play tourist, posing for photos with onlookers at the zebra cage, all of it. Unfortunately, a gardener for the zoo found Ken Allen called security

[00:15:29] which descended upon Ken Allen an orangutan with guns drawn which understandably agitated the orangutan. No kidding. He was then brought back unharmed but still, not a good look having guns drawn at a zoo in front of kids, tourists, nuns, zebras, all of it. The zoo eventually gave

[00:15:51] Ken Allen a female orangutan and then another because maybe he was just jealous of Otis, the other orangutan. Right? Maybe his love life was better and that's why he kept getting out throwing rocks at him? Eh, maybe. But he was just really a bad influence on his

[00:16:05] cage mates too. One female found a squeegee left behind by an employee, escaped and brought another female with her. Either they wanted to see the sights or they just needed to wash their hair. Either way, they were returned to the enclosure. According to Newsweek,

[00:16:20] the local news just kept up with him for a few more years but the coverage gradually faded and Ken Allen returned to a simple life of sitting in his pen and giving young children

[00:16:30] the finger. It's said that Ken Allen died in 2000 at the age of 29 and there is a memorial for him at the San Francisco Zoo. However, according to the Newsweek article, then again, maybe that's just what they want you to think. Perhaps Ken Allen faked his own death

[00:16:48] in an elaborate final escape plan and he's laying low across the border in Mexico and maybe one day he'll return, if only to throw more rocks at Otis. Oh my god you guys, my legs are asleep from sitting in this closet on my knees.

[00:17:10] I'm too old for this. Okay, I'm gonna make this fast. Thanks y'all for supporting this show. I'm so glad that you're here and I get to do these little ones just for you. If there are silly animal stories, great escapes, animals in the news that you'd hear about,

[00:17:23] let me know. You can ping me via Patreon subscription page, email bewilderbeastpod at gmail.com or just tweet at bewilderedpod on Twitter. Honestly, you could just send a carrier pigeon and it would just maybe make it. It's a small town. I'm Melissa McHugh

[00:17:38] McGrath with Mutt Stuff Media, dog trainer and author in Southern Maine. Now go get curious. I got today's information from the following people and resources who are way smarter than I am. Content dot time dot com, live science dot com, Facebook dot com, the Bonner Springs

[00:17:57] Police Department posts, which I beg all y'all who have Facebook checked these out, NBC news dot com, national parks traveler dot org, Washington post dot com, Newsweek dot com, and links as always are in the description of today's episode. Intro and outro music is tiptoe

[00:18:17] out the back by Dan Lebowitz, incidental music is by MK2. Thanks guys and hey, I'm serious about picking some fun designs. If you have a preference or suggestion or a favorite animal that you

[00:18:30] would like to see some artwork for, just let me know and I will try to make it happen. At the very least, I'm having fun just making the designs and I can just zip one over to you

[00:18:39] and you can do whatever you want with it. So that's what I'll go with. If there's like a big clamoring for a particular design, that's the one I'll go with. But if everybody wants

[00:18:49] different ones, maybe I'll just pick a couple for this batch and then send some more later on in the year. So anyway, look out for that in your mailbox in the next few weeks to a month.

[00:18:57] It makes me happy to send things to you. So I hope you like it. All right, that's it. Have a great month and I'll see you next time. I gotta stand up. This is gonna hurt. Bye bye. Oh my God, my knees.

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