OTTAWA — All of Toronto is talking about the daring breakout. Mayor John Tory went to the scene of the escape on Wednesday to quiz officials about their plans. Everyone in town has one eye out for the fugitives, but no one wants to meet them in a dark alley.

Who’s on the loose? A pair of capybaras.

The animals, native to South America, are the world’s largest rodent — picture an oversize tail-less beaver, or maybe a 125-pound guinea pig. A small zoo in High Park, on the city’s west end, already had one and was taking delivery of two more, a mating pair bred in Texas, when they bolted early Tuesday morning.

A passer-by reported glimpsing them in the area Tuesday night, but when Mr. Tory arrived on Wednesday, park officials seemed no closer to recapturing the as-yet nameless young lovers. The mayor was left to look over the zoo’s remaining capybara, Chewy, who sat in the grass in an otherwise empty fenced-in enclosure.

Image A capybara in Venezuela. Credit... Jorge Silva/Reuters

Mr. Tory said a dragnet was being mounted. “We are deploying the full resources of the zoo team, and others that they have brought to the cause,” he said.