A white stork in search of love has caused chaos in a town in Brandenburg every summer for four years. Will Ronny, as he is affectionately known, find love in the summer of 2019?
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Franke
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A so-called "problem stork" named Ronny with a reputation for wreaking havoc has returned to the German town of Glambeck in Brandenburg state for his fourth summer there, local media reported.
He spent his first few days in Glambeck attending to his nest, searching for food and getting reacquainted with his summer home.
"He landed a week ago. He can be recognized by his ring. He's in top shape and no longer limps," the local mayor, Hilde Peltzer-Blasé, told the Märkische Allgemeine newspaper.
Ronny is said to have acquired the limp during a victorious fight with a rival stork two years ago.
While the stork has become a familiar face in the Glambeck community, Ronny's presence has not always been welcomed by the locals.
He is known for attacking car roofs and windows with his long pointy beak, prompting residents to keep their cars inside garages and hang sheets in front of windows to try and protect them.
He even had the nerve to take leisurely strolls through front gardens and break into houses through patio windows.
Looking for a lover
His brazen behavior appears to have been an attempt to find a mate. Over the years, Ronny has spent much of his time in Glambeck fighting with two breeding storks, as well as all other "rivals" that he sees in reflective surfaces.
But since Wednesday a female stork companion has joined him in Glambeck, and the mayor thinks this is why Ronny has been better behaved.
"That's why he has become a little calmer. Whether this is his partner from last year, we couldn't find out yet," Peltzer-Blasé told the Märkische Allgemeine.
Storks from eastern Bavaria and Brandenburg cross the Bosporus and follow the Nile valley to reach Sudan, and some continue to Eastern Africa and South Africa, according to the Max Planck Institute, while storks in southwestern Germany migrate as far as Senegal via Spain and Gibraltar.
Germany's most famous animals
Germany is a big fan of celebrity animals. Sometimes it’s because of an endearing physical characteristic. At other times, it's down to a news story or viral clip that grips the nation.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Schmidt
Knut the baby polar bear
Perhaps the most famous of all German celebrity animals is the polar bear Knut. Born in 2006, Knut was rejected by his mother and had to be hand-reared by zookeepers. He brought the Berlin Tierpark zoo widespread media attention and even appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. However, Knut died from a suspected brain tumor in 2011.
Image: AP/Archiv Zoo Berlin
Heidi the cross-eyed opossum
The internet era might help explain the popularity of Heidi the cross-eyed opossum, who won an army of fans after she was featured on a local television clip that went viral. Heidi's distinctive eye condition was thought to be due to fatty deposits behind her eyes. At the time Heidi was euthanized because of old age in 2011, she had three times more Facebook fans than Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Schmidt
Tuffi the tumbling elephant
Back in the 1950s, Tuffi the elephant became an overnight star. As a marketing ruse, a circus boss put the four-year-old pachyderm on a wagon of the overhead monorail in the city of Wuppertal. The animal panicked and bolted as the wagon moved, falling some 12 meters (40 feet) into the river Wupper. The incident is remembered here in a mural by the river. Tuffi lived on for decades, until 1989.
Image: Creative Commons/Atamari
Bulette the Berlin hippo
Bulette became a popular attraction at the Berlin Zoological Garden, living to the ripe old age of 53. That made her Europe’s oldest hippo at the time she died in 2005, living a life 30 or 40 years longer than would be the case in the wild. Admittedly, she came from good stock. Her father Knautschke was the only large animal from the zoo to survive World War Two.
Image: picture-alliance/Berliner Kurier/P. Müller
Paul the octopus oracle
Paul shot to fame during the 2010 South Africa World Cup after correctly "predicting" the outcome of several Germany matches, as well as the final. Paul would be offered boxes containing tasty morsels and flags of the competing teams. When the clairvoyant cephalopod rightly indicated that Germany would lose to Spain in the semifinals, he was subject to death threats. Paul died later the same year.
Image: AP
Bruno the problem bear
Brown bears haven't lived in the wild in Germany since 1835. Bruno made headlines in May 2006, after wandering from a north Italian nature reserve to Bavaria. Bruno caused a stir when he began searching for food around houses and appeared to have lost any fear of humans. He was shot by hunters after attempts to catch him failed. As the photo shows, Bruno was later stuffed and wound up in a museum.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Kneffel
Yvonne the runaway cow
Bavaria was also the setting for another animal drama in 2011, when six-year-old brown dairy cow Yvonne escaped from her farm. The national daily tabloid Bild posted a 10,000-euro ($14,000) reward for her safe return. She was eventually rounded up and taken home. According to authorities, Yvonne "apparently got tired of the loneliness" and jumped over a fence to join a group of farm cows.
