A ‘Very Strange Guest,’ An Almost Extinct Bird, Visits A Vet Clinic

After some worried people picked up the unusual-looking bird, worrying it was sick, a vet clinic in Italy received a “quite strange guest.” However, it turns out that the bird is quite unusual. There are only about 200 of them in all of Europe.

The northern bald ibis was hunted to extinction 400 years ago, but it is now being reintroduced into the wild as part of a conservation effort led by the Waldrappteam.

The birds are born and nurtured in two Austrian zoos, and the hatchlings learn to fly with the assistance of a human mother in a paraglider.

This ibis wasn’t sick at all; in fact, he was fully healthy. Lancelot was standing by a lake on his way to Orbetello when he was pulled up by folks concerned that he was sick. Fortunately, the Clinica Veterinaria della Tuscia knew who to contact, and Lancelot was rescued by the project’s operators, and he reached safely at his final destination!