Hen Gerda is the star of this summer – even though the silly season hasn’t actually started yet. The chicken has spent four weeks on the median strip of Highway 4 between Dresden and Neustadt. The police started three attempts to rescue Gerda – without any success. Rumors suggested that the hen simply needs the adrenaline rush. In the end, a motorist rescued her and brought her to a foster home.

Every summer the German media is filled with horror stories of snappy turtles at lakes. The most famous one is probably the tale of the Chelydridae Lotti. In the summer of 2013, she kept an entire Bavarian town busy for weeks. Lotti supposedly bit an eight-year-old swimming in the local pond. The municipal drained the pond but until today Lotti was never found.

In the summer of 2011, Yvonne caught the attention of the media. On her way to the slaughterhouse, the cow escaped and hid in the nearby forests for three months. She became known as “the cow that wants to be a deer.” Today, Yvonne lives at an animal sanctuary in Deggendorf, Bavaria. In 2012, the cow shortly entered the stage once more: as an oracle during the European Championship.

In the beginning, Bruno was welcomed with cheers. After all, he was the first wild brown bear to be spotted in Germany after more than 170 years. Soon, it became clear that Bruno was a threat – he stole honey, preyed chicken stalls and killed sheep. Hunters were authorized to shoot the bear. Since 2008, taxidermied Bruno can now be seen at a museum in Munich.

In the summer of 2006, the media became interested in the story of the black swan Petra. And Petra had fallen in love – with a paddle boat on a lake in Muenster. After one and a half years of true romance, the relationship ended and Petra disappeared. It was years later, when Petra showed up at an animal shelter for storks.

In 2001, the so-called killer catfish Kuno caused a stir. Supposedly, he had swallowed a dachshund puppy at a local pond in Moenchengladbach. Two years later, a catfish of one and a half meters and more than 30 kilos was found floating on the water surface of the pond. The dead catfish was declared to be Kuno, the killer catfish, even though the ostensible dog owner never reported the incident.

Another love story made this animal famous. In 1996 Sandy, a penguin from the zoo in Muenster fell head over heels in love with her keeper Peter. When Peter didn’t show up for work for two months straight, Sandy found herself another penguin and started a family. In 2009, her partner died – widowed Sandy needed a shoulder to cry on and turned to her old love.

In the summer of 1994, caiman Sammy became known as the “beast of the pond”. Sammy managed to escape its owner while going for a walk at a lake in the Lower Rhine area. For an entire week, no one was allowed in the lake. Luckily, divers found the reptile and captured it alive. Sammy spent the rest of his days at the crocodile zoo “Alligator-Action-Farm” in Hessen, before he passed in 2013.