Two capybaras who escaped from the High Park Zoo Tuesday are continuing to evade authorities as the search resumes for the missing rodents today.

Officials say the capybaras were reported missing Tuesday after they escaped from their pen.

It was initially thought that two female capybaras escaped but Parks department spokesperson Megan Price told CP24 Wednesday morning that it was actually a male and a female that are on the loose.

"It’s more of a Bonnie and Clyde situation," Price said.

"When the staff at the end of the day had a chance to speak in detail with the zookeepers last night, it actually turns out it was a male and a female that were being delivered yesterday who are the fugitives right now."

The two are about six months old and are a breeding pair, Price confirmed.

About 30 staff members with the zoo and the city’s parks and recreation department were searching for the missing zoo animals Tuesday afternoon. Their search turned up empty.

"There was a sighting at about 9:45 last night. A resident who was walking in the park did spot one of the pair just around here by the pen. Probably they were drawn by the smell of Chewy, the remaining capybara," Price said.

"By the time staff was called and came down, they had absconded."

Price said the two animals are likely frightened and hiding in the park.

"It is a good sign that they are still around, that they know to come back to this pen so that is good news for them," she said.

Capybaras are semi-aquatic and Price said teams previously focused their search on the creek in the park.

"They are probably hiding in the underbrush or in the creek. They can submerge themselves under water with just their nose out to breathe so they are quite difficult to see if they don’t want to be seen," Price said.

She later said that staff at the zoo will attempt to bait and trap the capybaras this evening.

Speaking to reporters at the zoo on Wednesday afternoon, Mayor John Tory said the High Park Zoo has an "unblemished record" at bringing their lost animals home.

Last year, a Peacock that escaped from the zoo was eventually recovered after it was seen bouncing from rooftop to rooftop in the west-end neighbourhood.

"I’m just amazed at the resourcefulness of the people here at the zoo to develop a plan to get them back and I am amused at the fact that we have such a great success record when people have been up to mischief and animals have got away before," he said.

"We are deploying the full resources of the zoo teams and others that they have brought to the cause to have overnight surveillance, to have people parked in secret vehicles in the dark, to put out bait.”

While the animals are not considered to be a danger to the public, Tory reminded people not to approach them if spotted but to call 311 immediately.

The animals are said to have brownish-reddish fur and small, beady eyes.

"We are getting reports that they’ve been seen as far away as Scarborough and it would be quite a feat for these small, relatively young animals in 24 hours to have made their way from Scarborough unless they took the TTC," the mayor said with a laugh.

"We know that raccoons have been on the TTC before so it wouldn’t be a first."

The missing rodents have caused quite a stir on social media and the two fugitives even have their own Twitter account.

On Wednesday morning, a Twitter account under the name High Park capybara tweeted "We can hear helicopters overhead. Is that you @HighParkZoo?"

York Regional Police joined in on the social media chatter, tweeting out a photo of two capybaras with the caption, "WANTED - With a top speed of 35 km/h this illusive pair from Toronto may have made it north to York Region."