The Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas had been planning on keeping an African flamingo on display at their facility, but the bird had other plans. In 2005, having already spent three years of its life under lock an key, the flamingo seized upon a rare opportunity to fly away -- disappearing from sight before keepers could do anything to stop it.
For eight years, no one had any idea what had become of the fugitive flamingo, so far away from the continent where its particular species could be found. But it turns out, the bird is making the most of things.
Just last December, a bird-watcher on the Gulf Coast of Texas spotted the African flamingo 650 miles from where it had escaped, confirming its origins from a band the zoo had put on its leg -- and it wasn’t alone. The exotic Old World bird had apparently found a New World flamingo to be its companion.
When the birds keeper, Scott Newland, heard the news that all was well with the animal that slipped away so many years earlier, he was impressed.
“It’s a testament to the adaptability of these animals,” he says.