Flamingo spotted after escaping from zoo during storm 17 years ago

A flamingo that escaped from an American zoo 17 years ago has been spotted off the coast of Texas.

Known as ‘No 492’, the bird made its escape during a storm in Kansas with a fellow getaway.

The other escapee has never been seen again.

But No 492 has been spotted a number of times before confirmation that video shot on March 10 near Port Lavaca, at Rhodes Point in Cox Bay, is the same animal.

The Coastal Fisheries division of Texas Parks and Wildlife confirmed that the African flamingo is the one which escaped from the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita on a stormy night in June 2005.

Employees had not yet clipped the birds’ wings, which meant they could fly to freedom.

Officials were able to make out the number on the leg band of the bird’s, which gives it its name.

The video, captured by an environmental activist, shows the animal trotting along a section of sand on its own along the coast.

The animal had been spotted several times in Wisconsin, Louisiana and Texas, sometimes with other wild flamingos.

But it had been years since its last reported sighting.

Zoo officials have never made plans to recapture No 492, despite the sightings, saying there is no easy way to do so without disturbing other wildlife.

The escaped flamingos, known for their distinctive pink feathers and long legs and necks, were born in Africa then shipped to the Kansas zoo in 2004 with 39 other flamingos.

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