Escaped Zanesville animals immortalized on Twitter

— -- In the new grand tradition of exotic animal escapees and fleeting online infamy, some of the animals cut loose from an animal preserve in eastern Ohio on Tuesday took to Twitter to share updates while on the virtual lam.

The updates are a humorous distraction for a very sad story.

Ohio officials believe the exotic animal preserve's owner Terry Thompson set the animals loose before killing himself, leading officers to spend the night and morning tracking down the nearly 50 animals with orders to shoot and kill them.

The preserve in Zanesville had lions, tigers, cheetahs, wolves, giraffes, camels and bears, according to the Associated Press.

On Twitter, accounts were created for the Zanesville bear, lion and wolf. The accounts had thousands of followers between them this morning.

When an Egyptian cobra turned up missing in March at the Bronx Zoo, a Twitter handle was created for it, amassing more than 200,000 followers.

The Zanesville animals used Twitter to share jokes and talk among each other.

"What's a waffle? Is it like a live, wriggling gazelle? Those are the best," quipped @ZanesvilleLion last night.

"A lion, a bear, and a monkey walk in to a bar… Where did everyone go? We just wanted a beer," he said this morning.

The Zanesville Bear started on Twitter with a menacing grizzly bear avatar, but later swapped it out with an image of Yogi Bear.

"My PR team has recommended a new, softer image. Enjoy," he said.

This morning, the Zanesville Wolf addressed his own mortality on Twitter as reports surfaced that he had been shot to death.

"Guys, I'm not feeling so hot. This wound is pretty deep. If I pass, blare some Duran Duran in my honor?"

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Contact Mark W. Smith at msmith@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @markdubya or subscribe to his posts on Facebook.