Zoo employee disguises himself as an ostrich - and tries to escape

is it a bird Is it Superman? No, it's a man in an ostrich costume! Visitors to the Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand were able to enjoy this sight last week. There, an employee with an almost 2.50 meter high ostrich head ran wildly through the zoo before his colleagues could catch him with a large net.

The zoo keeper didn't wear the fake wings, the white make-up and the bird's neck for fun. The ostrich costume served as a training exercise to prevent possible animal escapes in the zoo and to catch escaped animals again. This is for good reason, because:

Logically, it could also happen that an animal escapes from its enclosure. According to zoo director Wuttichai Muangman, the staff would therefore simulate various emergency situations as part of a "wildlife management plan". Among other things: what happens if an ostrich escapes from its enclosure in the exhibition area of ​​the zoo. The results of the training simulation were posted by the Chiang Mai Animal Park fan page on the social network Facebook.

To the ordinary zoo visitor, lulled to safety behind the deer enclosure barrier, the long-legged birds may look relatively lanky. However, the animals, which can be up to three meters tall and weigh 160 kilograms, should not be underestimated. An escaped ostrich can run at up to 72.5 kilometers per hour - and is happy to use its legs and sharp claws when cornered. In the wild, such a kick can knock down even a lion.

We humans are much too slow for that. For comparison: According to the New York Times, one of the fastest sprinters in the world, Usain Bolt, achieved a speed of just 44.3 kilometers per hour in his world record in 2009.

In the training simulation, the ostrich doppelganger still managed to escape from its colleagues for a while. Then three employees finally circled him and led him back into the enclosure.

In 2019, the Tobe Zoological Parc in the Japanese prefecture caused a stir with a similar training exercise. At that time, the employees simulated a lion escape – to all shame even in front of the lion enclosure.

It is unclear whether other animal escape scenarios - such as pandas, tigers or penguins - are on the Chiang Mai Zoo's training calendar. But we are already looking forward to the pictures.

Speaking of animals: How well do you actually know your way around flora and fauna?