Fugitive flamingo seen on Texas coast 17 years after escaping Kansas zoo during storm
The fugitive flamingo that escaped from a Kansas zoo nearly 17 years ago has (once again) been spotted on the Texas coast, parks and wildlife officials say.
Flamingo No. 492 broke free from the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita alongside another African flamingo during an evening storm on June 27, 2005, the Wichita Eagle reported. The birds had succeeded in combining their not-yet-trimmed feathers and strong winds when making the great escape.
“No. 492, and the other flamingo who escaped, both went separate ways,” the Eagle reported. “No. 492 went to the Gulf Coast, and the other went up north. The Eagle reported in 2009 that no one has seen the northern bird since August 2005,” adding that zoo officials believe the two got separated during the storm.
While Flamingo No. 492 has yet to make a return to Kansas, it has been seen in Texas on multiple occasions. It’s believed to be about 27 years old, and experts say flamingos can live to about 30 in the wild.
This flamingo escaped a Kansas zoo in 2005 and hasn't been back — it keeps going to Texas
Most recently, the fugitive was spotted March 10 near Port Lavaca at Rhodes Point in Cox Bay, according to the Coastal Fisheries division of Texas Parks and Wildlife. Officials say it is the same zoo escapee that continues to linger on the Texas coast, though they referred to the flamingo as “Pink Floyd” rather than No. 492 (the number on its leg band).
Pink Floyd is the flamingo who escaped from its owner in Great Salt Lake but continued to return to the area until it was last seen in 2005, the same year No. 492 escaped.
Arguably the bird with a much-less-clever name, Flamingo No. 492 was not given a name before it went on the lam, the Eagle reported. It left Kansas before zoo employees could draw blood and determine the flamingo’s sex, so it’s still not known if this flamingo is a male or female.
Despite knowing where their long-long flamingo has spent at least some of its time over the last several years, zoo officials did not make plans to capture No. 492, a spokesperson said in 2009.
“There really isn’t an easy way to recapture the bird,” the spokesperson told the Associated Press in 2007. “It would only disturb wildlife where it’s been found and possibly could do more damage to the bird than just leaving him alone.”
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