Fact Check: Claim of a giant bird forgetting to fly after being caged is misleading.
A video of a giant bird flapping its wings on the edge of a hill, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers, with a claim that the bird was released from a caged zoo
Hyderabad: A video of a giant bird flapping its wings on the edge of a hill, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers, with a claim that the bird was released from a caged zoo after many years and had forgotten how to fly, has gone viral on social media.
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Fact Check:
The claim is misleading.
We ran a reverse image search using the screenshots from the video and found an article on a website called the Dodo, uploaded on July 9, 2018 titled 'Giant Condor Stops To 'Thank' Rescuers Before Returning To Wild'. As per the article, the bird seen in the video is an 'Andean condor' named 'Sayani' and it was freed by rescuers in Argentina after its treatment in 2014. 'Sayani' was discovered near death in Catamarca (Argentina) in 2012 after being poisoned by ranchers in the area.
We also found another article on the incident with the same narrative. Further, we found a longer version of the video of 'Sayani' being released by the rescuers. In the video, Sayani can be seen flying seamlessly in this video at 4:25.
Further, we searched the internet with relevant keywords and found a report by La Nacion on their website uploaded on September 6, 2018 titled 'A rescued condor thanks those who healed him before regaining his freedom'.
According to the report, Sayani, a male adult found in Ambato, was cared for by the fauna department before being transferred to the Buenos Aires Zoo, as part of the Andean Condor Conservation Project, which was successful in reintroducing 139 condors to South America in all.
Hence, the claim is misleading. A clipped video of an Andean Condor warming up before flying was shared with a misleading claim.