Flamingo Named Pink Floyd Spotted in Texas 17 Years After Zoo Escape
A flamingo nicknamed Pink Floyd that escaped from a Kansas zoo 17 years ago turned up in Texas this month, according to Houston's KHOU 11 News.
It escaped from Wichita's Sedgwick County Zoo in 2005 with another flamingo after handlers failed to clip their wings in time for a gust of wind to free them.
But on Tuesday (March 29), the Coastal Fisheries Division of Texas Parks and Wildlife confirmed that Pink Floyd, the African Flamingo identified as No. 492 from the number on its leg band, was captured on video March 10 in the Lone Star State.
Watch the video down toward the bottom of this post.
"Looks like Pink Floyd has returned from the 'dark side the of [the] moon'!" the state agency said in a Facebook post on March 25. "Spotted at Rhodes Point in Cox Bay near Port Lavaca by David Foreman on March 10. Pink Floyd is a local Texas flamingo that escaped a Kansas zoo in 2005 and has been seen on the Texas coast for several years."
The accompanying video has already accumulated more than 124,000 views. It's by far the most popular clip on the Coastal Fisheries Facebook page, as Ultimate Classic Rock observed.
Pink Floyd's escapee partner, flamingo No. 347, was last spotted on Michigan's Au Train Lake in August 2005. Pink Floyd, meanwhile, headed south and befriended a Caribbean flamingo. The two were seen together as recently as 2013, the same year that Scott Newland, then the Kansas zoo's curator of birds, told the Wichita Eagle of the escape, "It is a black eye, to be honest. It was basically an error. We are not fond of this story."
The zoo doesn't plan on trying to recover Flamingo No. 492. A spokesperson said its staff has accepted the bird will likely live the rest of its life in Texas.
Why Is the Flamingo Named Pink Floyd?
Flamingo No. 492 was named Pink Floyd for its pink and white hues, per The Washington Post. Whoever gave it the name was undoubtedly aware of the classic rock band Pink Floyd, who made influential 1970s albums including The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall.
The group hasn't performed together since their 2012–2014 reunion tour. Last year, drummer Nick Mason sarcastically compared his Floyd bandmate Roger Waters to Stalin. Before that, Waters claimed Floyd's David Gilmour was blocking a reissue of their 1977 album Animals.