Zookeepers transfer the Northern Bald Ibis into a box

CAMDEN Town is known for its hustle, bustle and featuring all walks of life.

However the appearance of an endangered migratory bird that escaped from London Zoo still managed to raise an eyebrow on Monday lunchtime.

The Northern Bald Ibis had escaped through broken mesh in the aviary at the zoo in Regent’s Park on Sunday night, and had got as far as Jamestown Road.

It was no laughing matter for staff at Hat Trick productions, the TV company that makes BBC One satirical comedy show Have I Got News for You, when they spotted the bird opposite their offices.

Receptionist Josie Wilkins said: “I just saw it from reception and he was just out here. There was a small crowd around it. It was a big bird with a massive bill, we called the RSPB and they said they couldn’t do anything, and neither could the RSPCA unless it was injured.

“Eventually we realised that it must have escaped from London Zoo and got through to them, and they sent someone out.

“He probably doesn’t get out much, everyone’s been stopping as they’ve started walking past. He’s turned into a big celebrity.”

A crowd watches on as London Zoo staff try to recapture the bird

Staff from Hat Trick helped protect the bird until zookeepers arrived. They unloaded a cage and tried to entice the migratory bird in with maggots, cockroaches and a couple of mice.

One woman who had stopped to watch said: “I’m late for a meeting, but I can’t leave while this is going on!”

The Northern Bald Ibis, also known as Geronticus Eremita, is a migratory bird usually found in barren, semi-desert or rocky habitats. It often breeds on coastal or mountain cliff ledges. Numbers have sharply declined in recent years, and while it was once commonplace across the Middle East, northern Africa, southern and central Europe, it disappeared from Europe 300 years ago, and there are now only about 700 birds in southern Morocco. There had been a small colony in Syria, but it is thought that the numbers there are now close to zero.

Reintroduction programmes in Turkey, Austria, Italy, Spain and northern Morocco have meant that they were downgraded from critically endangered to endangered in 2018.

The Northern Bald Ibis is native to Morocco and was ‘critically endangered’ until 2018

The attempts to coax the bird into a cage saw the Northern Bald Ibis toy with the crowd, walking towards the structure but turning away at the last moment.

Eventually the efforts of zookeeper Tom Lawrence and his two wingmen were successful, capturing the bird.

“We noticed it had got out last night, and given its age we don’t think it has been out before,” he said. He added that he wasn’t sure what sex the bird was.

A spokesperson attributed the escape to a loose wire in an aviary roof, creating “just enough slack” for the bird to squeeze through.

Escapes from London Zoo aren’t uncommon. In January 2018 a Kilburn High Road butcher was surprised to find a Caracara bird of prey, native to the Falklands, in his shop after being on the loose for ten days. The same bird then escaped 18 months later during a display.