Eight years ago tomorrow, on February 8th, 2013, an Andean condor named Queen Victoria escaped her handler during the pregame proceedings at a Bakersfield Condors game, delighting the crowd by strolling freely around the rink for a few moments before hopping into the home bench and heading for the locker room.
Kudos to the evening’s anthem singer, who, as chaos reigned on the ice, remained — if you’ll pardon the expression — totally unflapped.
I can’t find an update on Queen Victoria more recent than 2018, when she came back to Mechanics Bank Arena for the five-year anniversary of her viral moment. Read about that on Bakersfield.com.
Her majesty is in the care of Joe Krathwohl, “The Birdman”, whose Vegas-based outfit Birds N Beasts Inc. offers wildlife shows for schools and scout groups, avian ring bearers for weddings, specialized animal care for magicians, animal handling for film shoots, pest-control raptors for hire, and glamorous appearances by “the Birdgirls of Las Vegas”.
