Do you know what a dazzle is? It’s a group of zebras. Right now, a dazzle of three zebras is on the run in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
They escaped from an Upper Marlboro zebra breeding farm at Bellefield and Duley Station Roads.
And catching the zebra trio won’t be like catching domestic animals, according to area Veterinarian Linda Molesworth, who owns a zebra.
“Some people think they are like horses, but they are not,” Molesworth said. “You cannot walk up and grab them. They will run through something; so if you have them in a fence they will try to run through the fence or climb over it.”
They are wild animals, and she said they interact and react as wild animals.
“It’d be basically like trying to catch a deer that’s loose in someone’s field,” Molesworth said.
The demeanor, she said, can sometimes be more like trying to catch a wild bull, which is also a reason residents should not approach them.
“They could be very dangerous,” she said. “They’re very fast. They will wheel and kick and they will run you over if you’re in the way.”
The farm they escaped from has set up a feeding station in a field where they know the zebras are frequenting. Each day they are adding another piece of a tall corral around the feeding area and hope to be able to soon close them into that corral, then get them back home.
In the meantime, anyone who sees the zebras should call Prince George’s County Animal Control at 301-780-7242.
