Ken the Orangutan, San Diego
When Ken Allen died in 2000, the San Diego Union-Tribune ran an obituary: "Beloved ape, 29, was renowned escape artist." Yes, Ken Allen wasn't just any primate. The Bornean orangutan, born at the San Diego Zoo in 1971, became famous after a series of escapes in the 1980s. According to the zoo's website, "He never seemed to mind being led back into his enclosure — he just seemed to enjoy the challenge of finding a new way out!" The "hairy Houdini" had a fan club, was the subject of T-shirts and bumper stickers, and even inspired "The Ballad of Ken Allen." In an attempt to figure out how he escaped, the zoo had workers go undercover as tourists and had rock climbers check out the walls. "Ken Allen appeals to everyone's sense of breaking out," psychiatrist and ballad writer Dennis Gersten told the AP. "The irony of it is that he doesn't really want to leave. He breaks out, but he doesn't go anywhere."
Evelyn the Gorilla, Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Zoo has seen its fair share of escapes (see Virginia the Wolf, also on this list), but nothing comes close to the rash of animals — including zebras, chimps, kangaroos and antelopes — that cunningly made a run for it in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Los Angeles Times reported that in the span of half a decade, at least 35 animals escaped the zoo, including the infamous gorilla Evelyn. Over the years, Evelyn escaped her enclosure some four or five times. Once she jumped onto another gorilla's back to hop over the wall. Another time, she used some overgrown vines to pull herself out of her exhibit. She then had full run of the zoo for an hour as TV-news copters hovered overhead and visitors were evacuated.
Leona the Penguin, Germany
It could have been a disaster. But thanks to some good fortune — and a bunch of fish — a curious young penguin survived a trip to the lions' den. The African penguin, just a few months old, kicked off 2011 by waddling out of its enclosure at the Münster Zoo in Germany and was exploring the wider zoo world when it ended up in the lions' territory. The cats, as luck and feline habits would have it, were asleep, and zookeepers eventually managed to get the flightless bird out of harm's way with a trail of herrings. The penguin formerly known as No. 459 has since been dubbed Leona.
Cyril the Sea Lion, Ontario
On June 17, 1958, a sea lion by the name of Cyril managed to swim away from the premises of the Storybook Gardens Zoo in London, Ont. The creature, whose natural home lay by the islands near San Francisco, voyaged through the waters of Lake Erie, traversed an international boundary and was found lolling about near a boathouse in Sandusky, Ohio. Cyril was then transferred to the nearby Toledo Zoo, but he didn't stay long — within weeks, he was sent back to Canada. But as a July 1, 1958, article in the Toledo Blade pointed out, Cyril could have been Toledo's to keep: 60 years earlier, in 1898, the New York Supreme Court had ruled on a similar case of a "runaway sea lion" and "proclaimed that wild animals which escape from their owners are no longer the property of their former owners." Yet Cyril was returned anyway. Chalk it up to good cross-border relations.
Goldie the Eagle, London
Goldie the golden eagle escaped from the London Zoo on Feb. 28, 1965, while his cage was being cleaned. He swooped and soared around Regent's Park, evading capture for 12 days despite attempts by police, firefighters and even an intrepid BBC reporter wielding an Ethiopian bird pipe to snag him. The London public adored Goldie; a reported 5,000 people turned out to see the free bird in action, causing serious traffic jams around Regent's Park. Goldie was eventually recaptured by Joe McCorry, deputy head zookeeper of birds of prey at the zoo. Enticed by a dead rabbit, Goldie swooped to the ground, and McCorry caught him with his bare hands. Ten months later, Goldie escaped again — this time for only four days.
Buffalo, Hippopotamus and Agouti, San Francisco
The thing about being a zookeeper is that you're really effective only if you're able to keep the animals in the zoo. In July 1964, a zookeeper at the Fleishhacker Zoo (now the San Francisco Zoo) had a really bad day. First, he got a call from the police saying they had captured 13 buffalo that zoo director Carey Baldwin didn't even know were missing. Five hours later, he received another call. This time, again unbeknownst to Baldwin, a 300-lb. (135 kg) pygmy hippopotamus had escaped and was taking a stroll down a nearby road. A short while later, a large South American rodent called an agouti (pictured here) made a run for it. A dramatic chase ensued, and the little guy was eventually captured. At the end of his day, Baldwin told the Associated Press he would review the zoo's security.
Cuban Iguanas, the Bronx
Iguanas may be harmless, but they are also 4 ft. (121.92 cm) long and look like a terrifying mix of an alligator and a dinosaur. One week after two iguanas arrived at the Bronx Zoo in New York City from Cuba in July 1908, the pair decided to make a break for it. They climbed over the wall of their small, uncovered cage to run wild in the reptile house. The next day, a young girl spied them and screamed. Her cries and the sight of the beady-eyed, ugly reptiles incited pandemonium as people ran for the exit. Though zookeeper Charles Snyder tried to calm the crowd, saying, "There is nothing to fear. The reptiles are harmless," panic ensued nonetheless. Amid the excitement, one man hopped over a fence into an alligator cage, only to scramble out when he realized where he was.
Virginia the Wolf, Los Angeles
Wolves are not supposed to be able to climb trees. Or fences. But a wolf named Virginia chose not to abide by nature's rules and escaped the Los Angeles Zoo in 1979 multiple times by ascending trees, climbing fences and walking along branches toward her eventual freedom. At one point, she eluded veterinarians and zoo officials for a month; they spotted Virginia occasionally and tried to subdue her with tranquilizer guns, to no avail. A zookeeper at the time joked that Los Angeles had the largest wolf exhibit in the world — 4,000 acres (1,620 hectares) in nearby Griffith Park. It's unclear whether Virginia was ever recaptured.
Rhesus Monkeys, Long Island, New York
When an employee of Frank Buck's Jungle Camp Animal Park near Amityville, on New York's Long Island, accidentally left a plank across an exhibit moat, Capone the rhesus monkey led 172 of his cohorts out of the park and into the woods. Crossing a set of the Long Island Rail Road's tracks, the small monkeys chased away a set of train workers and stopped the progress of a locomotive for at least 5 minutes. Money and season passes were offered to anyone fleet enough to catch the swift simians and return them to the park.
Monkeys, Paris
It started with a fire in the monkey house. On July 31, 1926, 20 monkeys escaped from Le Jardin d'Acclimatation, a children's amusement park in Paris, after their enclosure inexplicably caught on fire. The monkeys spent the rest of the day bounding freely through the nearby Bois de Boulogne park — swinging from trees and climbing over fences — as Parisians gleefully chased them all day long.
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