One of the interesting factoids accompanying the escaped-penguin story that delighted the media for the last three months is that Japan has more penguins in captivity than any other country. Tokyo Sea Life Park, the facility from which the male Humboldt penguin in question made his break, has 135. The appeal is obvious: Penguins are cute and easy to handle. No one became upset when the bird managed to get out of his enclosure and into Tokyo Bay. In fact, a certain type of commentator dominated social media, cheering the errant penguin on and lamenting his eventual capture. A few of these boosters named him Steve, as in actor Steve McQueen, the star of "The Great Escape." He was a rebel.

The escape of another species of wild animal made the news on April 20, when two female employees of the Hachimantai Bear Farm in Akita Prefecture were killed by bears that had climbed over the wall of their enclosure by means of a pile of leftover snow. Six were shot and killed on the premises and it was eventually determined they were the only ones that escaped, but at the time, since the number wasn't immediately known, local authorities warned nearby residents to be on the lookout for, as the Mainichi Shimbun reported it, "bears on the run." They were criminals.

The two narratives couldn't be more different in tone, but they conveyed a similar message by dint of the verb that unified them. "Escape" implied that the animals were leaving a situation adverse to their dispositions. The penguin and the six bears were simply doing what they were supposed to do, but because we live in a world defined by humanity their instinctual actions attracted unusual attention. Such concern became ludicrous last week when a bunch of squirrels escaped from Tokyo's Inokashira Park Zoo into the surrounding park. If the media hadn't covered the frantic effort to catch the squirrels would anyone have noticed, or, for that matter, cared?