Laura Read, CEO of Marwell Zoo, said: “We will always follow up on any public sighting. We still have that public number available. She won’t evade everybody forever.”
Read said the capybara’s escape had striking similarities to an incident that occurred 30 years ago when two escaped capybaras were found along the same stretch of water at the centre of the current search.
“We’re not giving up,” she said. “When this happened 30 years ago, it took two months to locate and get them back.
“We’re in it for the long haul. We’ve got a duty of care and we will exercise that.”
Samba and her sister, Tango, arrived at the zoo on 16 March after being transferred from Suffolk, but both escaped the following day.
Tango, also nine months old, was found close to the zoo and was swiftly retrieved, but her sibling remains at large.
Missing Samba quickly became the talk of the village after she was first spotted in the nearby village of Owslebury on the evening of 17 March.