Boston cop uses mating call on phone to lure lovelorn peacock
The male bird breaks out of the zoo, possibly in search of a female.
- Third place film critic, 2021 LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards
"Siri, find me a peacock mating call."
Cell phones are endlessly handy. You can make calls with them, play games, find your way around unfamiliar cities -- and lure escaped peacocks.
That's how a Boston police officer used his device this week when faced with a big bird that had broken out of the Franklin Park Zoo.
Snowbank out and about in Boston.
It was around 6 a.m. Monday when a concerned citizen approached officers on patrol in the Roxbury area to report an unusual sighting: a large peacock roaming the neighborhood.
"An officer on scene relied on his quick wit to track down a peacock mating call on his cell phone, successfully luring the bird into a fenced-in yard where he waited patiently for the arrival of Boston Animal Control," the department recounts in a report on the official Boston Police Department website.
The department describes the plumed perpetrator as "extremely large, slightly intimidating, and quite beautiful," while visitors to the Boston Police Department's Facebook page describe the officer's actions as "brilliant," "clever" and "awesome."
The 6-year-old escapee, named Snowbank, is back home at Franklin Park Zoo, which has been his home since 2013, and "doing well," according to the zoo. Like so much of the world, the zoo is temporarily closed due to COVID-19.
The zoo's peacocks are free-roaming, the organization said in a statement, and "while they typically wander throughout the zoo, it is currently mating season, and it's possible he ventured out looking for love in search of a peahen (female peacock)."
Now, if the officer can just find a peacock-friendly dating site and make the suave Snowbank a match...