Exotic bird escapes Idaho zoo for trip around town

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — Vanessa Winger’s 2-year-old grandson Benjamin was excited about pictures of ducks on the Internet until something more vibrant touched down in Winger’s front yard.

The bird peering through the 14th Street window was much more exotic than the Internet’s two-dimensional ducks.

“It was a huge, beautiful black-and-red bird,” Winger said. “It was 3 feet tall … that’s taller than my grandson.”

The sighting wasn’t imagined.

At about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, a black and red African ground hornbill escaped from the Tautphaus Park Zoo.

A neighboring zebra assisted in the escape by chewing a hole through the hornbill’s zoo enclosure. Hornbills don’t normally take to the skies, Superintendent Beth Rich said.

Wednesday must have seemed like a good opportunity to test out his wings.

Numerous residents spotted the exotic bird flapping around town until it was sedated and caught at about noon by Idaho Falls Animal Services near Lava Street and Chamberlain Avenue, more than a mile from the zoo, Animal Control Officer Danyelle Harker said.

The city sent out a reverse 911 call to area residents shortly before locating the bird, which sounded something like a missing persons call, Harker said.

The zoo has two ground hornbills but only one escaped, Rich said.

Even though the bird eats meat, the escapee never posed any danger to the public.

“(Ground hornbills) are relatively docile birds,” Rich said. “They’re not something we consider a dangerous animal.”

This was one the weirder calls animal services has received, Harker said, perhaps only topped by a 7- or 8-foot-long dead boa constrictor found in the ceiling of a home.

“I haven’t ever been called out for a zoo creature being loose,” she said.

It’s definitely an encounter Winger and Benjamin will never forget.

“We were looking at ducks and then this big bird comes in … (Benjamin) was so excited,” Winger said.

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Information from: Post Register, http://www.postregister.com