Cutta-kun/Katta-kun is dead カッタ君が死ぬ

From the rather sparse wikipedia entry about Ube City:
"One of the main attractions of the park is a white pelican called 'Katta-kun', so named after his parents who were from Calcutta, India. Born in the park in 1985, he became famous as he began visiting schools in the vicinity by himself." (Note: Katta-kun would be the straight romanization of his name but souvenirs from Tokiwa Park spell it as Cutta-kun which is how I've always known it as.)

According to the Tokiwa Park history of Cutta-kun (sadly not updated yet), Katta-kun started terrorizing visiting schools on his own back in 1988. The story made national news and from that time onward he became a symbol of Ube City.

Cartoon images of Cutta-kun can be seen around Ube on buses, maps and there is even a postcard set featuring Cutta-kun.

An animated film about him, カッタくん物語 (Cutta-kun Monogatari), was made as a fundraiser for the city back in 1994.



The movie was not based on fact since Cutta-kun apparently could SHOOT BEAMS FROM HIS MOUTH:



Cutta-kun was 23.

NHK story on Cutta-kun.
Asahi Shinbun story.