Raul, escaped peacock, back at Bronx Zoo after spending night in tree
Raul the peacock also committed an alleged crime by attacking a man, according to the FDNY.
NEW YORK -- A peacock who escaped New York City's Bronx Zoo is attracting growing attention -- and hasn't even needed to fan his feather.
"Raul," as locals have nicknamed the runaway fowl, had perched in a nearby Bronx tree Wednesday and spent Thursday morning roosting there before making his way back to the Bronx Zoo.
The wayward bird had been perched in the tree since before 8 p.m. Wednesday night, after flying off zoo grounds and pecking at one man's leg who tried to shoo it to safety.
Despite all efforts from local officials to safely capture the beautiful bird, he appeared to make it quite clear he wanted to stay perched up high
After all, trying to capture a bird with feathers five feet long likely isn't something first responders are accustomed to doing.
Our sister station WABC was live on E. 180th Street and Vyse Avenue, as crowd of people gathered around the peacock awaiting his next move.
The Bronx Zoo told WABC that hundreds of peacocks roam freely on their property.
Raul was seen earlier in the day near the zoo but decided to go on quite the adventure.
He has committed a bit of a crime, as well. The FDNY confirmed that the peacock attacked a nearby bystander who suffered a minor injury.
According to eyewitnesses, Raul allegedly pecked at a man last night who was trying to catch and help him.
"He tried to trap it off of somebody's parking lot in someone's parking garage up the block," eyewitness Chris Gutter said. "Raul wasn't having it. Raul flew over the parking lot gate, started coming down here, he started to chase him over here, and I guess he got too close to Raul, Raul took a peck at him. He flew up in this tree first on this side and got tangled up and flew from here to over there, and Raul has been over here for the past three hours now."
It's not yet clear how the zoo plans to get the peacock back.
Raul isn't New York City's only avian escapee. Flaco, a Eurasian eagle owl, broke free from the Central Park Zoo in February and managed to elude his rescuers time and time again. To many experts' surprise, Flaco became comfortable outside of captivity and started hunting for his own prey.
