Fugitive Camden peacock finally caught in Ham&High joint rescue operation with nursery staff

Camden’s famous wandering peacock - a fugitive on the run from London Zoo for the past year - has finally been caught after gutsy nursery workers teamed up with the Ham&High in a daring rescue operation.

Quick-thinking staff at Three Acres Pre-School, in Parkhill Road, Belsize Park, detained the elusive bird yesterday inside a makeshift cage made of two sets of mini football goalposts pushed together.

The peacock had made several visits to the pre-school’s playground over the last week and staff took drastic action after their calls for help to London Zoo and the RSPCA fell on deaf ears.

After containing the bird in the goalposts, the pre-school called the Ham&High urging the newspaper to provide assistance.

Following a call from the Ham&High, zookeepers today rushed to the scene, looking “sweaty and desperate” according to onlookers, and finally returned the peacock to its home, more than a year after it escaped the Snowdon Aviary at London Zoo, in Regent’s Park, after a visitor left the enclosure door open in June last year.

Andrew Niedojadlo, deputy senior play worker at the pre-school, said: “It was not that much fuss at all, I just kept cool and calm. The peacock was walking so I treated it like a chicken and led it into my trap.”

A spokesman for London Zoo said: “The peafowl is a very capable flyer and we have been trying very hard for some time to rescue the bird, but she flies away very quickly.

“She appears very healthy, and we are grateful to Three Acres Pre-school for quickly alerting us to the sighting through the Ham&High.”

The peacock has become a social media sensation in recent weeks after popping up across Camden.