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About 20 escaped ostriches bolted and roamed the streets of the small town of Taber in southern Alberta on Thursday morning, evading several police officers trying to catch them.
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A video of part of the unusual incident shows a man who RCMP say is the owner of the ostriches hanging out next to a police truck and trying to grab one of the massive birds as it hurtles down the street run. The ostrich stumbles and pulls away from the truck and runs away as a second RCMP cruiser gives chase.
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RCMP say the ostriches escaped a local farm early Thursday morning, prompting a response from several Mounties and Taber police. Cpl. Troy Savinkoff said by 1:30 p.m. all the ostriches had been caught and safely captured by their owner, except for one who unfortunately died after being hit by a vehicle.
Savinkoff said Mounties are often called to help deal with escaped livestock like horses and cows, but ostriches are definitely on the weird side of the spectrum.
“Ostrich is certainly not the usual one that we would go to work expecting to deal with,” he said. “That’s one of the things as an RCMP officer: it’s really hard to predict what you’re going to do any day, and there are definitely days where you go home at the end of a long shift and you’re surprised about what you encountered during that shift.”
Taber is located approximately 250 kilometers southeast of Calgary.
