REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
UPDATE: The peahen is back in the building. The AP says she was found Wednesday morning in the garage of a local business and returned safe and sound to the zoo.
The Bronx Zoo may want to rethink its security detail. Following the escape of its cobra in March—okay, so it only made it out of its cage and into a dark corner in the reptile house—comes the zoo breakout of a female peacock, actually a Green Peahen. And this time the entirety of the Bronx is on notice.
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While the birds generally roam free through the zoo’s grounds, they do occasionally flee. And this peahen not only picked up her feathers—and bright green plume—and made a run for it, but has also eluded net-wielding zoo workers on the streets of the Bronx. On Tuesday, workers tried to snare the peahen in their nets as it surveyed the scene atop a van parked on Morris Park Ave., a few blocks from the zoo. The bird eluded capture.
A second attempt to nab the colorful animal happened in the grass nearby. That too was met with failure. It seems a bird’s ability to fly helps it greatly in its escape attempts (maybe that is what doomed the cobra’s failed effort). The peahen, which poses no threat to humans, was also spotted nibbling on a hamburger bun outside a subway station earlier in the day, possibly giving it enough sustenance for the excitement that would come later.
Zoo officials believe the bird left on Monday and fully expect it to saunter back home, largely due to the zoo’s ample supply of food and the busy Bronx traffic not being a peahen’s favorite environment.
But for now, they have no clue where the three-foot-long bird has gone. Of course, if the zoo wanted to know where the peahen is, all they need to do is follow it on Twitter at @BronxZooPeacock. The peahen makes no effort to disguise her dream of performing on Broadway and will do everything possible to get there.
Nancy Clum, the zoo’s curator of ornithology, isn’t so sure about that. “We’ll get her eventually,” she says. “I don’t know if she’s confused or adventurous. But this is certainly an adventure for us.” And certainly an adventure for the peahen.