Frankie the flamingo wins her freedom after flying to France from Cornwall | Cornwall
Zookeepers in Cornwall decided to donate an escaped flamingo the thing he apparently worked so hard to achieve: freedom.
Four-month-old Frankie flew out of the walled garden of Paradise Park in Hayle on November 2, despite his feathers being trimmed.
The brave phoenicopter stunned its owners when it was reportedly spotted more than 100 miles away in Brittany, France.
Now Paradise Park has confirmed that Frankie did indeed make the 120-mile flight across the Channel to the Plage de Keremma beach and they have decided not to try to bring him home.
Paradise Park curator David Woolcock said in a recent update: “It was never our intention for Frankie to end up in the wild. “There are numerous reports of similar situations where flamingos have lived and thrived for many years, including during European winters, so although we continue to worry about him, this is a situation we must accept.
“We are confident that its movements will be observed and recorded by citizen science members in France, and we will be comforted to know that it has demonstrated the resilience and skills that will serve it well as a ‘wild’ flamingo. Frankie’s parents and the rest of the flock at Paradise Park continue to do well.”
Woolcock said it would be very difficult to catch Frankie and that if he was caught he would need to undergo a health screening, and that he now posed a risk because he might have come into contact with birds infected with bird flu.
The zoo believes Frankie was able to fly despite his wings being clipped because his feathers continue to grow as he develops, adding that wing clipping hinders his ability to take off, but not necessarily the ability to fly once he’s airborne.
Addressing fears about its chances of survival, Woolcock said: “It was feeding independently before leaving the park and was an extremely fit young bird. All the evidence that we saw it in France suggests that it was a well-adapted, well-fed bird in extremely good condition.”
