Eight years on the lam, escaped zoo flamingo living large in Texas

[douglas9]

(Reuters) - An African flamingo that escaped a Wichita, Kansas, zoo eight years ago has been spotted living with a companion cavorting in the Gulf of Mexico, some 670 miles to the south.

The five-foot tall bird, more white than pink and still wearing a leg band bearing its zoo-assigned number, 492, was seen last week in an inlet off Port Lavaca, Texas, by birder Neil Hayward, who described the sighting in a blog.

The sighting didn't surprise Scott Newland, curator of birds for the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, which the bird departed in 2005.

"Every year or so we get a call," Newland said, noting that the African species is not a normal sighting for North American birders.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/13/us-usa-flamingo-escape-idUSBRE9BC0PD20131213?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

[hunter]

1. It seems more amazing he found a partner.

Not a lot of dating opportunities for a single flamingo living wild in North America...

[rug]

2. This is a badass flamingo.

[pitohui]

3. yeah, some years this pair enters louisiana

i heard they were back a week or so ago, not sure where they go in the summer, mexico maybe?

this is a cool story, although sad in a way because the theory i heard hear in louisiana is that the mexican bird was originally probably blown off track by hurricane rita (2005, the second half of hurricane katrina season) and this disaster may be what allowed the two birds to meet and pair up

as you see, they have been together ever since, eight years now!