Flamingo Massacre Mystery Solved

Not raccoons or Satanists but foxes to blame
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 25, 2014 1:28 AM CDT
Updated Mar 25, 2014 8:42 AM CDT
Flamingo Massacre Mystifies Zoo
A flamingo braves the low temperatures at the zoo in Frankfurt, central Germany.    (AP Photo/dpa, Boris Roessler, File)

Something or somebody has got it in for the rapidly dwindling flamingo population at the Frankfurt Zoo, and after foxes, raccoons, and Satanists were floated as potential culprits, the killer has been identified. The zoo director today said that tests show the villain was a fox, reports the AP. Some 15 of the birds were killed in mystery attacks over two nights—nine on Friday, six the next day; some of the birds were beheaded while they slept, and the BBC reported that some of the animals appeared to have been stabbed.

Extra security was put in place after the first night, but guards failed to prevent the second attack. Little blood was found at the scene, leading police to look into whether the flamingos were killed elsewhere and then returned to the zoo, where another three flamingos died in mysterious circumstances in 2007. The zoo now plans to lock the birds up at night, erect an electric fence, and set live fox traps to prevent future flamingo massacres. (More flamingos stories.)

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