After a brief escape from the Bronx Zoo, a free-roaming peacock returned back to its home, but not before causing some havoc in New York City on Wednesday evening.
Around 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday, the New York Fire Department sent units to the scene on 180th St. “for reports of a minor injury,” the NYFD confirmed to PEOPLE. One patient was treated on the scene, but refused transport to the hospital, per the agency.
A user-submitted Citizen video showed the wayward peacock, whom onlookers dubbed “Raul,” hanging out in the middle of the street, theNew York Daily Newsreported. The vibrantly colored bird then flew up into a tree, overlooking the chaos below as more people crowded at the scene.
“I ain’t gonna lie, it’s bringing out the neighborhood. Everyone wants to see this. He’s beautiful,” one Citizen user wrote,according to Fox News.
Before taking off into the tree, the bird bit a man’s leg when he attempted to corral it, per theDaily News.
“It started running up the hill toward traffic and we had to keep the bird safe,” the man, who identified himself as Mike, told the newspaper.
Explaining what happened next, the man said that “we chased him, I trapped him inside the gate, he got tired of the gate and then tried to peck me,” according toNBC New York.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“Raul” remained perched in a tree at Vidalia Park overnight before returning back to the zoo on Thursday morning.
“The peacock who spent last night in a tree outside the Bronx Zoo flew back onto zoo grounds under his own initiative at 11:19 am,” a representative for the zoo tells PEOPLE in a statement.“We kept an eye on the bird this morning as he started to move around at dawn and fully expected him to return to the zoo as he did. We had confidence in our knowledge of bird behavior to predict how he would behave if given the chance to do so without interference,” adds the official. “We were confident in our staffs' ability to handle the situation.”
Although peacocks don’t typically fly, they will take flight when they feel cornered or threatened, the official shares. “Peafowl are not dangerous,” the official says, noting that there are many free-roaming peacocks living within the zoo’s grounds.
“Like many other animals, peafowl rely on a flight response when they feel threatened,” adds the official. “But like any animal, when cornered, they may react and peck to protect themselves.”
source: people.com
