Texas appears to be the current home for “Pink Floyd,” one of two flamingos that escaped during a storm in 2005 from a zoo in Wichita, Kansas.
Pink Floyd is between 4 and 5 feet tall and has the breed’s typical vibrant feathers, slender neck, and spindly legs.
Flamingos usually stand on one leg with the other tucked beneath their bodies while in the water. They start life with grayish-red plumage, but when they are adults, their feathers display various hues on the spectrum, from light pink to bright red. The food they eat contributes to their vivid coloration; this bright plumage is a sign of good health and comes from the bacteria in their diet.
Flamingos are wading birds from the Phoenicopteridae family. There are only six flamingo species in total, four of which live in the Americas and the Caribbean. The other two species are native to Africa.
While they are not typically a species that migrates in the wild, they are capable. Usually, captive flamingos such as Pink Floyd and his companion have their wings clipped; however, the zookeepers had not clipped the wings of these particular birds before they flew the coop.
Pink Floyd, also known as number 492, and his friend, number 347, escaped a year after arriving from Tanzania in 2004. They came with a group of thirty-seven other birds.
Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Coastal Fisheries division confirmed that the African flamingo was captured on video near Port Lavaca, Texas, on March 10. An environmental activist captured the footage of Pink Floyd, and officials were able to identify the flamingo by his leg band.
“Looks like Pink Floyd has returned from the ‘dark side of the moon!'” the agency wrote.
While no one knows what became of the friend, Pink Floyd has touched down in Texas, Wisconsin, and Louisiana over the years. He is about 27 years old and can live up to 50 years in the wild. There are no plans to recapture him, so he remains at large on the Texas coastline, just as he was the last time he made a cameo on Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Facebook four years ago.