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Date: 5/16/2023
LUDLOW — Mary, the one-horned antelope, was returned to Lupa Zoo after escaping over a month ago.
Mary escaped on April 1 when a tree fell on her fenced enclosure after a storm and has been exploring Western Massachusetts ever since.
Multiple residents from surrounding communities posted video footage of the antelope on social media either roaming in their backyard or on the side of the road.
Mary was captured on May 6 around 11:45 p.m. near the solar panels by the Massachusetts Turnpike and Chapin and Miller streets.
She was safely returned to her enclosure at Lupa Zoo the following morning.
Lupa Zoo’s Facilities Development and Animal Care Director Wally Lupa said after many attempts to capture Mary, he and a team were able to get her in a trailer.
“We finally got her to a spot that was secluded, and we were able to set up our trailer that we were able to make out of makeshift traps. It was the sixth location we tried. After about 20 minutes of Mary checking out the trailer, we were able to close the door. It took me about three to four minutes to have it sink in that I had her,” Lupa added.
Lupa said that he spent the last five weeks sleeping in the truck in different locations to be close to her last sighting.
He added, “I was ecstatic to catch her. I was beside myself. It was such a great feeling. It was also a great feeling to finally sleep in my bed.”
The hardest part of capturing Mary is the way she is built, according to Lupa.
He said, “She’s really built like a miniature tank,” Lupa said. “She has great night vision, she can hear hear extremely well, she only has to sleep about 10 minutes at a time and can do a 30 mph trot without breaking a sweat.”
Lupa added that Mary is 24 years old so she wasn’t a good candidate for tranquilizing “even though we were ready to if we had to, but that was a last resort.”
Usually, an antelope in captivity lives to about 15 to 20 years old according to Lupa.
Lupa checked out Mary that night and reported that there was not a scratch on her and only a few ticks that were scraped off.
Mary was also given medication and when returned to her enclosure she “rubbed noses with her mate and they had grains for breakfast together,” according to Lupa.
There were no real threats to Mary in terms of predators hunting her. Lupa’s biggest concern was a car.
The Hampden County Sheriff’s Department and Lupa said that over the course of the past five weeks, the search for Mary has been assisted by the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office’s special teams, the Ludlow, Wilbraham, Belchertown, Three Rivers and Palmer police departments along with the USDA, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the Massachusetts Environmental Police, and Dr. Peter Brewer, staff veterinarian at Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon.
The public involvement and social media posts played an important role in catching Mary.
Lupa said, “It was tremendous because I gave out my personal number and heard from police departments about locations that residents reported seeing Mary. There were a lot of people who called and there were areas I went to that were for a moose, but I went to every call to check.”
He added, “I want to thank everyone. The public, the Sheriff’s Department, all the police departments, the USDA and everyone. I want to thank you from Lupa Zoo.”
This is the first time that an animal has escaped from Lupa Zoo and Lupa said that this is a lesson that the zoo can learn from to avoid future problems.
Lupa said, “We definitely changed our protocol. Now in the morning the zookeeper comes in, they close the gate before they get checked. We are going to raise funds; we want to put in an electric opener on that gate, so it takes away the human element of being manual the way it is.”
He added that Lupa Zoo has also been cutting down dead trees or trees close to enclosures to avoid anything like this in the future.
Lupa said, “We had a tree that looked healthy but was hollow inside that went over during a bad lightning storm. Out of some bad coincidences when the zoopkeepers came and opened the front gate and went down to load up, Mary walked past and went out the gate. The neighbor’s dogs started to bother her and she took off through the woods.”
You can visit lupazoo.org to view its hours in order to visit Mary and the other animals living there.