After days of media speculation, the lifeless body of a penguin, stolen from an animal park, was found in a car park. The Humboldt penguin case is the latest in a string of animals thefts from zoos across Germany.
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Sometime between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday an unknown criminal brazenly snatched a Humboldt penguin known as Number 53 from its enclosure. The peak-hour theft wasn't noticed until a routine afternoon headcount, by which stage the South American penguin was long gone.
By Thursday afternoon the flightless bird was found dead, discarded in a car park.
"The case of our missing penguin could not have taken a worse turn," said Park Director Joachim Költzsch.
"All of us, especially the keepers who have taken care of the animal every day, are shaken. Shattered over its death, but also shaken that someone could have so little respect a living creature."
Zoo officials ruled out an attack by foxes or other predators and said there was no way the juvenile penguin escaped of its own accord. So suspicions fell onto criminal activity.
As police were investigating the theft, the park issued desperate pleas for the return of the threatened bird, which cost zoos up to 3000 euros (3200 USD) to purchase. The bird was tagged and therefore difficult to sell.
"Because number 53 ... is no longer in its normal environment, without its special diet and perhaps not enough liquid, it is in danger and will not survive for long," the park posted on Facebook after its disappearance.
Zoologist Christine Krämer also wondered how easy it would be to actually snatch a penguin, suggesting the work of professional thieves. "The animals are very defensive, they have a very sharp-edged, pointed beak," Krämer told local newspaper, "Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung."
Latest in a series of thefts
The apparent theft of Number 53 was just the latest in a string of thefts from zoos in Germany. In December 2015 two hyacinth macaws, worth up to 40,000 euros on the black market, were stolen from Krefeld Zoo. Just six months earlier thieves had stolen three of Golden Lion-tailed monkeys from the same zoo. Police suspected it was the same group of thieves in each case and local media reported links to eastern Europe at the time.
In September 2016 a suspected organized crime group reportedly stole 13 lemurs from their enclosure at a zoo in Thüle, west of Bremen, after disabling security cameras. The zoo director told a local paper that lemurs were in great demand, especially in Eastern Europe, where they are kept as pets or in private zoos.
In August 2015 thieves kidnapped three dwarf monkeys and two rodents from their enclosure in Dortmund. In November 2015 thieves stole a 70 centimeter long King Python from a zoo in Magdeburg, east of Berlin. Other cases include the theft of three kangaroo babies in Brandenburg, and a flamingo in Bremerhaven.
The director of Krefeld Zoo, which was struck by thieves twice, suggested a cooperative among German zoos to fight theft.
"In the face of theft, zoos could join forces and hire detectives to search for the animals," Wolfgang Dreßen told German news agency dpa.
"We are talking about a well-organized and Europe-wide illegal animal trade."
aw/rt (dpa, AP, AFP)
Uncaged! When animals escape their zoos
Animal rights groups are calling for an indepenent investigation after silverback gorilla Kumbuka escaped his enclosure and was subdued by a tranquilizer dart. Click for more on Kumbuka, and other noteworthy "zoobreaks."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/K. Wigglesworth
Kumbuka escapes in 'minor incident'
London Zoo on Friday called the male western lowland gorilla's escape from its enclosure a "minor incident" that posed no danger to the public. He was out of his enclosure for around an hour, ultimately subdued with a tranquilizer dart. Armed police were deployed. The zoo could not say precisely how Kumbuka got loose, but announced that an investigation was underway.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/K. Wigglesworth
Big man on campus
Kumbuka escaped into what the zoo described as a "non-public keeper area." According to a Buzzfeed article citing a zoo source, the ape ("a f------ psycho") had a history of acting up. Eyewitnesses had said he was aggressive and banging the glass prior to the incident. Speaking to the BBC, the zoo's curator of mammals said such behavior was common by males seeking to impress females.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/ZSL
People told to stay indoors with gorilla loose
Visitors and staff were locked inside zoo buildings, part of standard emergency procedure, while the case was dealt with. Some reported on their own brief taste of zoo captivity via social media. According to figures from the UK's Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (AVLA), London Zoo attracts around 1.25 million visitors per year, just enough to make the AVLA's top 25 crowd-pullers.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Dunham
Duisburg Zoo orangutan shot at perimeter
An orangutan in Duisburg fared worse than Kumbuka during his August 2015 breakout. By the time the zoo became aware he was on the loose and laid eyes on him, he was already climbing the outer perimeter fence. Zoo officials said it was then too late to risk a tranquilizer dart, which may not sedate large animals immediately. Female Manggali (pictured here) shared the enclosure with him.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Weihrauch
Five chimps flee Hannover Zoo
June 2012: a broken branch offers a group of five chimpanzees a new way up and over their fence at Hannover Zoo. During their flight, they overran and injured a five-year-old girl. They were recovered without suffering any violence in the end, tempted back by calls from their keepers.
A snow leopard named Irbis, rather larger and a touch less cute than this cub from the same Wuppertal Zoo enclosure, slipped his cage this September. People were ordered indoors and staff dispatched to deal with the situation. Within around 15 minutes of the breakout, a vet located and tranquilized the endangered mammal. Between 4,000 and 7,000 snow leopards are thought to remain in the wild.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Looking for love, but not in a cage
Staff at the Nandankanan Zoo in India had an odd experience with a wild male tiger in 2013. They gave him a home on discovering him lurking around the enclosure's tigress. A month later, though, he seemingly decided love wasn't quite worth captivity - jumping an 18-foot (4.6 meter) wire fence to return to a bachelor's life at large.
Image: Imago/Nature Picture Library
Raccoon digs for freedom, returns for mate
A raccoon at the small Tropiquaria conservation house and zoo in Somerset, southwest England, used unusually wet weather to make her escape. She was able to dig her way out with the ground softened. A search was launched, without success, but Missy eventually returned to the male in her pen of her own free will. Perhaps after realizing there were no wild raccoons in the region?
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/L. Klimek
Gimme a rock, I'll break the lock
Capuchin monkeys are notoriously smart and sociable - probably why they're becoming a popular pet for the Justin Bieber's of this world. In the wild, they've been observed using rocks as tools, for instance cracking nuts. And in a Brazil zoo in 2012, they did just the same - smashing the locks in their pen and walking out the door.
Image: DW/V. Kleber
Humboldt penguin settles in Tokyo Bay
A penguin at the Tokyo Sea Life Park mysteriously managed to escape his aquarium's walled and fenced enclosure in 2012. Known only as penguin 337, staff launched a frenzied search, fearing that the 1-year-old wouldn't do well in the wild after a life in captivity. They found him two months later in Tokyo Bay seemingly well-fed and healthy, and opted to leave him be.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/I. Wagner
Porcupine flees, fights, and falls
Back in Germany, a zoo near Hanover lost porcupine Hartmut in 2014 to an open gate, in what might have been an act of sabotage. The prickly fellow showed some real wanderlust, roaming around 5 kilometers from his former home, and putting three of his sharp spines into a fireman trying to round the critter up. His tale ended, alas, under the wheels of a train.
Image: picture-alliance/Arco Images GmbH
Rusty, Matt and Luri - rogue red pandas
The Opel Zoo in the western German state of Hesse lost a red panda couple for around two days back in 2008, believing that the creatures used bamboo plants to climb to freedom. They were recovered safely, as was Rusty - a young red panda in Washington D.C. who became something of an online celebrity during his brief escape foraging for food. These baby twins were brought to Berlin's zoo in 2011.
Image: Getty Images/S. Gallup
Serial 'escape artist' Roy
Also in 2008, Osnabrück's zoo twice lost track of a male wolf named Roy. His more dramatic second attempt, around a month after the first, involved him jumping his enclosure's borders, tearing away part of the electric fence in the process. He was recovered in the northern German city within a couple of hours though.