People visit the zoo to see animals. One guest of a zoo in Kanpur, India, however, had more than watching birds in mind.
Indian farmer Mohammad Arif, 30, wanted officials of the zoo to free a giant Sarus crane caged there.
The two became friends after Arif treated the bird of its injury and nursed it back to health for six weeks. When he released the recovered crane, it kept visiting him at his home in Amethi.
The crane also trailed the farmer whenever he went for bike rides, and it ate out of his hands.
Arif shared videos of him with the bird on social media. The videos went viral, turning the pair into Instagram stars. They have nearly 300,000 IG followers.
The odd couple’s friendship was rudely interrupted last month when authorities captured the crane regarded as a vulnerable species. They brought it to the zoo, which was more than four hours’ drive away from Amethi.
Arif said his friend should be released either into the forest or a bird sanctuary.
“It has never lived in a cage before; it has always lived free,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Meanwhile, a New Zealand zoo guest went too cozy with its wild residents.
The male visitor of the Auckland Zoo had to be escorted out and handed to police for breaking and entering an enclosure for rhinos and nyalas, a breed of spiral-horned antelope, last 19 April.
A zoo spokesperson said the intruder not only startled the animals.
He took a leisurely bath in a moat inside the enclosure, AFP reported. Social media footage of the incident showed the man floating on his back in the pool, washing his face and rinsing his hair.
After several minutes, zoo staff instructed the bather to get out of the moat and exit the zoo gate where responding officers were waiting to accost him.