Watch a condor go wild before a hockey game [Video]

The Bakersfield minor-league hockey team is nicknamed the Condors. Somewhat fitting here in California, where the condor is slowly making a comeback, although the giant bird featured in the video above is an Andean condor and not our native species.

You have to love minor-league franchises for always looking to spice up pregame ceremonies or enticing fans to the stadium or arena with unique promotions.

But when the ECHL team had a handler bring a condor to the middle of the rink to be perched there during the singing of the national anthem, things slowly got out of hand.

First the handler lost his grip on the giant bird, which wandered toward the edge of the rink. After he retrieved the condor, the handler took a spill just before returning to mid-ice. It got worse.

The bird got rambunctious again and made its way back onto the ice, where it was shooed toward its handler by a Condors player. The bird ended up in the Bakersfield bench, nearly attacking a coach as it hopped from the railing into the second row of seats.

As the handler tries to corral it, the condor makes its way down the bench and exits stage right into a corridor leading to the locker rooms.

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