The Hague, Netherlands – The great Dutch scavenger hunt is over. Five days after thermals and gusty winds swept Abu the white-back vulture away from the private birds of prey breeding center where he lives, a police officer found him Wednesday, and falconers coaxed him back into captivity.
Abu is normally kept in an enclosure but disappeared into the clouds Friday while being trained for a flying demonstration.
The center was inundated with calls of Abu sightings after it appealed to the public for help in finding him. Most were false alarms.
He finally was discovered 80 miles away – as the vulture flies – standing in a field, said Cariene Muller, a staff member at the center.
The police officer and another member of the public called at the same time with the sighting in the village of Liederholthuis.
“The policeman took a photo of him with his mobile phone and sent it to us, and then we could see it was Abu,” Muller said.
Falconers raced across country to retrieve the 3-foot-tall bird, while the officer prevented onlookers from getting too close and scaring off the bird, which has become a minor celebrity in the Netherlands.
“Catching him was easy,” Muller said. “They had food, and he saw that and walked straight up to them.”
