A British seagull ended up rather orange-faced recently when it fell into a vat of curry.
The bird tumbled into the container of chicken tikka masala whilst trying to pinch meat from a food factory last week. Workers rescued the now umpa-lumpa-looking bird at the site in Wales, before delivering it to a nearby wildlife hospital.
Once there, veterinary staff resorted to copious amounts of washing-up liquid to lift the bright orange colouring from the bird’s feathers. Whilst they were able to return the seabird to its natural hue of white and grey, one thing they couldn’t scrub away was the overwhelming odour of curry emanating from the avian.
Veterinary nurse Lucy Kells elaborated: ‘He really surprised everyone here—we had never seen anything like it before. The thing that shocked us the most was the smell. He smelled amazing; he really smelled good.’
The cheeky, curry-smelling scavenger has since been nicknamed ‘Gullfrazie’ on Facebook. Staff are currently getting its strength up by feeding it meat, dog and cat food as well as pieces of chopped-up fish.
‘He is a bit skinny so we are building his strength up a bit,’ Kells said. ‘I guess that’s why he was trying to get a piece of meat from the vat and fell in.’
Gullfrazie will be transferred to an outside aviary to re-waterproof his feathers in the coming weeks before being released into the wild.