I'm trying to develop an argument about Russian-English translations of figurative language. I've been looking at cases where people talk about capturing an animal versus capturing someone's attention. Here are two example sentences in English, found online.
When Ruth Harkness, a New York fashion designer, became the first foreigner to capture a live panda eight years later, she named it Su Lin, meaning “a little bit of something cute”.
Last week, Hungarian artist Dandolf captured the world's attention when he released an appallingly cute (and strangely hard) puzzle, featuring a hidden panda.
I know that пленить is mostly used in the figurative sense and using it to mean capture is deemed obsolete in many dictionaries. But захватить doesn't seem to be used with reference to animate objects besides prisoners and hostages. I've also found a couple of examples where пленить is used to mean capture an animal.
В далекой Африке фермеры пленили российскую краснокнижную птицу скопу, окольцованную в 2013 году в Дарвиновском государственном биосферном заповеднике, который находится на границе Вологодской и Ярославской областей.
My questions are: (1) can пленить still be used to mean to physically capture an animal, (2) can захватать be used to mean to physically capture an animal, (3) is one of these better than the other, (4) is there some other word that's even better, and (5) does the following translation sound okay or weird:
На прошлой неделе, венгерский художник Dandolf пленил внимание всего мира, когда он выпустил ужасающе мила (и странно трудная) головоломка, показывая скрытую панду.
Thanks in advance for any advice!