Watch this hilarious animal rescue video as man dressed as ostrich ‘escapes’ Thai zoo
Workers at a zoo in Thailand practiced their animal escape plan with the help of a full grown man dressed in an ostrich costume, video showed.
The Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand tested their contingency plan for capturing escaped wild animals with a live simulation on Aug. 23, the zoo posted in a news release.
But instead of practicing with a real escaped ostrich, the simulation involved a man in an ostrich costume, a video from Thai PBS showed. With a bulbous sphere around his waist covered in black fabric and decorated with a fake feathered tail, the man painted his face white and wore a hat designed to mimic the flightless bird’s long neck.
The simulation began when the “ostrich” fell out of the animal show area, the release said.
Multiple zookeepers corralled the impostor ostrich with screens while another chased after the escapee with a large fishing net, video showed.
And the escaping “ostrich’’ran — though not as fast as the actual bird, which can sprint up to 43 mph, according to the Smithsonian.
Still, the zookeepers successfully captured the fake bird, removing his hat to reveal the man underneath and laughing together, the video showed.
The Chiang Mai Zoo did a similar animal escape drill in 2019 with a person dressed as a kangaroo, wearing a bear onesie, red boxing gloves, and black face paint for a nose, an earlier news release showed.
Whether the zoo’s other animals — including giant pandas, hippos, and penguins — will be part of future escape drills is unknown, reported The Guardian.
The Chiang Mai Zoo is about 430 miles north of Bangkok.
This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Watch this hilarious animal rescue video as man dressed as ostrich ‘escapes’ Thai zoo."
