Ed the zebra is airlifted away after evading capture for several days in this image from a June 8, 2025, video by the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office in Rutherford County, Tennessee. (Rutherford County Sheriff's Office via AP)AP
If you have internet, you’ve seen Ed the zebra being rescued by a helicopter. Ed escaped shortly after relocating to its new owner’s 115-acre farm in Tennessee. The fugitive zebra was on the loose for eight days before it was captured Sunday.
Taylor Ford bought the zebra as a pet for his family. He explained his purchase in this article in The Tennessean, “It’s really just the wow factor,” Ford said. “When my kids have friends come over, and we go back ... and we’ve got zebras or something else cool they’re not used to seeing, it’s just a really cool animal.”
Ford sees his story, which has become an internet sensation, as bringing the community together.
“I don’t want to worry about this escape ever happening again, and it being something that I’m part of and having to disrupt the community,” he said. “I’m hoping he becomes a symbol of something that brings people together for this community.”
An outfit by the name of Tango 82 Aviation led the search for Ed, and they finally spotted it in a pasture near the Buchanan Road exit off I-24 in Tennessee. Search and rescue teams converged on the scene with a veterinarian to assist.
“They (Tango 82 Aviation) used a net capture method that they use to capture these animals in Texas and basically dropped a net right over top of it,” Ford told The Tennessean.
The zebra was returned to the Ford family, and I’m sure they stepped up security measures so it doesn’t escape again!
I love these stories that lighten the day a bit. The daily news is full of doom and gloom, and Ed the zebra probably brought on a few grins.
So, to continue with the funny and peculiar animal stories, here are a few others:
- Cat nurse: A cat recovered from respiratory illness, then became a nurse and helped other sick animals get better. She gave them hugs and licked their ears. The hugs, I can see, but the ear-licking? I’m not sure that would work on humans.
- Penguin poop bombs: Scientists realized that powerful penguin poopers can fling their feces at about five mph and up to roughly 53 inches away. It would be fun to have a few pooping penguins in the back of a truck on the New Jersey Parkway at rush hour.
- Moonwalking eels: After being swallowed by a predator, some eels perform a moonwalk to backtrack through the digestive tract and escape through the mouth. I wonder if Michael Jackson’s estate will require a commission.
- Cannibalistic ants: When some ants were trapped in an abandoned nuclear bunker in Western Poland in 2015, scientists discovered they ate carcasses of the dead ants to survive. Suddenly, I’m feeling the urge to watch The Donner Party documentary!
Lastly, a story of my own. We used to have a couple of cats, one of which was appropriately named Sir Oliver Lawrence of Arabia. He would get on my chest every morning and wake me up by making biscuits on my chest. That’s what the action of kneading his paws and purring is called in Alabama - the land of biscuits.
Up here in Jersey, the land of pizza, you guys probably call it kneading dough. No matter, it’s pretty adorable.
Maybe I’ll make some biscuits or pizza dough while watching that fun documentary mentioned above!
Stories by Karim Shamsi-Basha
Karim Shamsi-Basha may be reached at kshamsi-basha@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter & Instagram.
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