Pit Bulls, mysterious beluga deaths: 2016's news-making creatures

2016 saw numerous animals become the centrepiece of high-profile court proceedings and political hot potatoes.

Here are some of this year's Canadian animal newsmakers:

High Park capybaras

Two large rodents escaped a downtown Toronto zoo last May and remained at large for weeks in a giant park.

High Park Zoo staff dubbed the animals Bonnie and Clyde.

The daring escape led to dozens of sightings.

Animal detectives flocked to the park to try to find the critters.

One was eventually caught June 12 and the other remained free until June 28.

The hunt for Bonnie and Clyde reportedly cost the city $15,000.

Ikea monkey owner's new monkeys

In August, the Ikea monkey's former owner, Yasmin Nakhuda, threw an annual party for her supporters where she met her two new monkeys, Caesar and Diva — the latest additions to her growing menagerie.

Guests roamed Nakhuda's sprawling property in Kawartha Lakes, Ont., watching burlesque dancers, sipping wine and snapping photographs of the other animals, including miniature donkeys and two marmosets.

Nakhuda moved there in 2014 after losing her "son" Darwin, a Japanese macaque that escaped from her car and wandered into an Ikea store.

Images of the tiny monkey wearing a beige shearling coat triggered a social media frenzy and a legal battle that Nakhuda eventually lost to an animal sanctuary where Darwin now lives.

New Brunswick python

In an emotional trial that ended in November, a jury found a New Brunswick man not guilty of criminal negligence causing death after his African rock python escaped its enclosure and killed two young boys three years ago.

Four-year-old Noah Barthe and Connor Barthe, 6, died during a sleepover in Jean-Claude Savoie's apartment in August 2013.

The python escaped by travelling through a ventilation duct and dropping into the living room where the boys slept.

Montreal pit bulls

A pit bull escaped from a Montreal home in June and savagely attacked and killed a woman in her own backyard, setting in motion a fierce political battle that has ended up in court.

Police shot and killed the dog as it stood over a lifeless Christiane Vadnais.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre led the charge as the city swiftly passed a bylaw banning new pit bulls and placing strict rules on current owners of pit bulls when walking the animals or keeping them outside the home.

The bylaw was quickly challenged by the local SPCA in court, which suspended it until it hears legal arguments.

Alleged fighting dogs

Last January, Ontario's animal welfare agency filed a court application to destroy 21 dogs seized in a raid on an alleged dogfighting ring.

The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Chatham-Kent police took the dogs in October 2015 from a home in Tilbury, Ont.

Five people now face more than 300 criminal charges related to animal cruelty and weapons offences.

Throngs of animal activists have shown up to every court date. Even Don Cherry, a noted animal lover, wants the dogs saved. 

Dead belugas

Two beluga whales, a mother and her daughter, died mysteriously nine days apart at the Vancouver Aquarium in November. Aquarium officials said the pair — Aurora, 29, and Qila, 21 — exhibited similar symptoms before dying, but examinations failed to pinpoint why they died.

They were the last two belugas at the facility, although it does own five others that are currently housed at marine parks in the United States.

Officials said none will return to Vancouver and plans to expand the beluga tank will be put on hold.

Hot pigs

In August, an Ontario woman went to trial to defend a criminal mischief charge for giving water to pigs on their way to slaughter.

Animal activist Anita Krajnc told court she gave pigs water through a porthole on June 22, 2015, and got into a heated argument with the driver of the truck transporting the animals to a slaughterhouse.

The pigs' owner filed a complaint with police the next day and later told court he was worried for the safety of his animals, which, by law, are his property.

The Crown agrees with the farmer, saying Krajnc was interfering with his property when she gave the pigs water.​

Drowning penguins

Seven penguins drowned at the Calgary Zoo last week prompting calls for surveillance cameras in all animal enclosures.

The zoo's penguin exhibit had been closed for maintenance and a colony of 22 Humboldt penguins was staying in a back holding room with two pools.

Officials believe the incident happened some time between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, when a zookeeper found seven penguins dead.

Jamie Dorgan, the zoo's director of animal care, said staff sampled the water and checked temperature and air conditioners, but nothing was out of sorts.

Necropsies on the penguins confirmed they drowned.