A WANDERLUST baby pelican has been keeping zookeepers at the Wild Zoological Park, near Stourbridge, on their toes after failing to return from a flight.

The young pelican, which is one of the Halfpenny Green zoo’s free flight birds, has been missing since around 7pm last night (Sunday) August 2).

Zoo staff have taken to Facebook to appeal to members of the public to notify them of any sightings and they have been urging people to send a picture over if possible.

A member of the team said: “We have been chasing our tails.

“People obviously mean well but we’ve been responding to calls that are clearly not a pelican or even look remotely like a pelican. We appreciate the good will and wanting to help but it means our recovery team are going in the wrong direction.

“Pelicans are huge birds with massive beaks, they don’t tweet, if anything their call sounds more like a cow than any other bird."

The bird - described as a "newbie in training" - has been seen in Sedgley, Gornal and most recently Tipton. He is microchipped and wearing a black ID leg band.

A spokesman for the zoo said: "We fly 100 birds twice per day, sometimes the newbies get lost. We temporarily lose birds a handful of times a year and we fly every single day including Christmas."

To report a bonafide sighting call 07889 723567 or 07540 123917.