As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Wednesday 4 July 2018

Flamingo Spotted in Texas, 13 Years After Escaping Kansas Zoo



By Kimberly Hickok, Staff Writer | June 28, 2018 10:06am ET

It's incredibly rare to catch a glimpse of an African flamingo on the Texas coast, but if you do, it's definitely Flamingo No. 492. The conspicuous pink bird has been on the run from the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, since escaping 13 years ago. Sightings of No. 492 have been rare, but the fugitive flamingo was spotted last month in Lavaca Bay, Texas, about halfway between Houston and Corpus Christi,The New York Times reported.

No. 492, along with 39 other flamingos, was sent to the Sedgwick County Zoo from Tanzania in 2003. Typically, zoos prevent flamingos from flying by amputating a part of their wing when they are newborns — a part that hasn't yet developed sensation. But the flamingos from Tanzania arrived at the zoo as adults, so curators there decided to clip the birds' feathers instead, as a more humane solution to keep the animals grounded, the Times reported. [In Photos: On the Lam: 10 of the Greatest Animal Escape Artists]


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