She may be only four months old and more than a few feathers short in one wing, but when Frankie the flamingo heard the call of the wild, she responded in the only way she could — by trusting her instincts and winging it. The juvenile bird, whose disappearance from her home at a zoo in the UK last week prompted a nationwide search, has been found happy and thriving on a beach in France’s Brittany region. Among the staff at Cornwall’s Paradise Park, who identified their missing bird by the clipped wing visible in pictures taken by a French photographer, her discovery evinced mixed emotions: Relief that she’s safe, worry about her future and pride at her resilience.

That Frankie did not allow a literally clipped wing to ground her and curb her yearning for freedom should be an inspiration f

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