New Zealand is in mourning today, after old age and arthritis forced staff at Wellington Zoo to put down national hero Lanky The Pelican, not just the only pelican in NZ but also the zoo’s most long-term resident, having lived there since 1978.
He was known for his long beak, affection for hissing and ability to eat a kilo of fish in a day, which, while a shockingly similar description to that of Danny DeVito‘s portrayal of the Penguin in Batman Returns, apparently makes for a beloved pelican.
According to his keepers, Lanky was known to nick food from the monkeys in the enclosure next door, which is exactly the kind of ‘having a cheeky go’ attitude we would expect from the bird, who was born in Adelaide and truly never forgot his roots.
His passing has reduced the number of pelicans in New Zealand to zero and the number of celebrities called ‘Lanky’ down to the one eccentrically dressed member of the Kong family.
At the end of his life Lanky was suffering from severe arthritis in his ankles and was finding it a struggle to walk, we can only hope he is now in bird heaven, eating as much fish he can get at with his ridiculous beak.
Source: Stuff.co.nz.
Image: Wellington Zoo.
