Australia youths 'maul flamingo'
Four teenagers in Australia have been charged with an attack on an almost blind greater flamingo, thought to be one of the oldest of its kind alive.
Police and zoo officials said the flamingo's head and beak were injured and it was bleeding from an eye.
The bird, aged at least 75 years, is in a critical condition, zoo staff said.
The bird has been at the zoo for most of its life and, with its Chilean partner, has been one of Adelaide zoo's most popular exhibits.
Police said four men aged between 17 and 19 were charged with aggravated ill-treatment of an animal and released on bail to appear in court at a later date.
Several visitors at the zoo at the time of the attack had spoken about the incident with zoo staff and officers wanted to interview them, a spokesman said.
The injured bird, described as tame and docile, was sedated after the attack and taken to a local veterinary clinic where its condition was reported to have improved overnight.
The exact age of the flamingo remains unknown, as proper records from his arrival in the 1930s do not exist.
"The bird arrived at the zoo in 1933 and was a mature bird at that stage," a spokeswoman for the zoo told Agence France Presse.
"So although we don't know its exact age it is at least 75 years old - much older than they grow in the wild," the spokeswoman said.
"Although undoubtedly the oldest flamingo in the world its quality of life is very good," the zoo's website says.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7699092.stm