Officer Used His Phone to Lure Escaped Peacock

Turns out you're not the only one desperate to break out of your home environment these days. A peacock named Snowbank fled Boston's Franklin Park Zoo, and was wooed back in a most unusual way. Zoo New England, which has the Franklin Park Zoo under its umbrella, says the zoo's peacocks wander about in a "free-roaming" manner. Zoo officials told the Boston Globe that Snowbank typically takes to a tree at night, and "this morning, instead of flying down onto zoo grounds, he flew outside of the gate, where he began his adventure."

They speculate the animal was looking for a female to mate with, as it's currently mating season. An officer in the Roxbury section of the city capitalized upon that fact: A Boston Police Department post explains what happened next: "An officer on scene relied on his quick wit to track down a peacock mating call on his cellphone, successfully luring the bird into a fenced-in yard where he waited patiently for the arrival of Boston Animal Control." The New York Times describes such a call as "reminiscent of the squawking sound of party noisemakers." (More peacock stories.)