Further adventures of Jack the capybara

I HAVE news of another sighting of Lady McAlpine’s elusive capybara Jack.

Regular readers may recall that he escaped from her home at Fawley Hill in May and was seen many times along the Thames from Toad Hall garden centre to Temple Island before being recaptured at Temple Lock.

However, no sooner was he back home than he got out again and he was spotted on the river bank during Henley Royal Regatta.

Now Jack, a giant rodent native to South America, appears to have wandered a little further.

Martin Smith, from Winnersh, was on a boat with friends Simon Smith, from Henley, and Ashley Fletcher and his four-year-old daughter Isabella, from Wargrave, when they spotted the capybara at Hennerton Backwater.

Mr Smith, who is managing director of Kingfisher Safaris, tells me: “Ashley spotted the animal coming out from under the bridge and Simon suggested it was a marmoset but as soon as I saw the animal I knew it was a capybara as I used to be a wildlife safari guide in Africa. Due to my interest in wildlife, I knew the animal is indigenous to South America.

“Despite the excitement of Isabella, the animal stayed still to give a fantastic view of the animal and sparked the quiet conversation about where this animal might have come from.

“We settled on the idea that it must have escaped from Lady McAlpine’s collection of exotic wildlife. We regularly canoe the Hennerton Backwater in a 16ft Canadian canoe and have never seen anything quite like this before.”

Lady McAlpine had obviously heard the news of Jack’s adventures. She tells me: “He’s having the time of his life. He spent the weekend before last between [radio presenter] Mike Read, [artist] Bill Mundy and [entrepreneur] Ed Simons’ houses and they were all feeding him apples.”

She says that Jack’s “wife” back at Fawley Hill is irritable but “the tapirs are cuddling her at night”.

Perhaps when the autumn arrives, Jack will feel like going home.