Penguin escaped from zoo in corn field
Animals
An African penguin escaped from the Salzburg Zoo on Sunday night. After a search of several hours, the young bird, which hatched in April, was rediscovered in a corn field in Anif (Flachgau). How the escape was managed is not known. A penguin had just escaped for four days in the fall.
The flightless bird had only recently left its nesting hole. It is not known whether the animal was perhaps looking for a place to cool off. According to Sabine Grebner, managing director of the zoo, Mann was informed at 6:20 a.m. on Sunday that a penguin had been seen in a corn field. “After all the African penguins had gathered in the facility the evening before, we hadn’t noticed the loss,” says Grebner.
Combed corn fields with a human chain
However, the first search by the employees for the still nameless animal in three adjacent and densely overgrown corn fields turned out to be “looking for a needle in a haystack”. Since the use of a drone with a thermal imaging camera was also unsuccessful, the search team was enlarged. The corn fields were closely combed with a human chain – which ultimately resulted in the escapee being found.
Overcome numerous obstacles on escape
Grebner cannot explain how the penguin managed to get from the facility and the zoo grounds to the corn field 800 meters away. “There are several fences and other obstacles between the penguin facility and the site where it was found, and penguins are known to be better swimmers than pedestrians,” says district manager Andreas Gfrerer. The cameras installed after the disappearance of a penguin in October 2021 would not have mentioned anything either.
Police: suspicion of theft not confirmed
At that time, a young African penguin had been missing for four days until it became slightly emaciated and was picked up on a cycle path and footpath not far from the zoo. At that time there was also a suspicion of theft. The police investigations did not result in any initial suspicion, a police spokesman said on Monday to the APA.