They weren't considered a flight risk

January 11, 2022 8:37 PM

Dozens of ostriches run on main roads after fleeing from farm in China
posted by ActingTheGoat (13 comments total)

Great title!
posted by fairmettle at 8:49 PM on January 11, 2022 [24 favorites]

lol @ ratites, with their comical inability to fly, their absurd remarkably large eggs*, and their goofy lack of preen glands, which is why they all look hilariously permanently disheveled.


* Okay, okay, so though ostrich eggs are quite large, they are proportionately smaller than the eggs of most other birds, kiwis lay proportionally the largest eggs of any bird (20% of their body weight!)
posted by aubilenon at 9:13 PM on January 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

What are they being farmed for?
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 9:38 PM on January 11, 2022

Ostrich is fairly delicious, and also feathers.
posted by hippybear at 9:42 PM on January 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

I was in Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland once and saw an escaped cow absolutely galloping down a residential road. The best bit was that they ignored the two lane road and instead ran through people's front gardens, jumping the hedges in between like a clumsy racehorse.

Also, in Berkeley a few years ago, a whole gaggle of wild turkeys started following me when I was walking down Francisco St. The security guy at the North Berkeley BART stop was amused, but wouldn't let them on without tickets.
posted by kersplunk at 9:45 PM on January 11, 2022 [6 favorites]

Great title!

No kidding.
posted by y2karl at 9:56 PM on January 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Apparently most of them have been recaptured.

Assuming that the remainder find a sufficiently hospitable environment, then given the history of human-avian conflicts, I don't rate China's chances of controlling its growing feral ostrich population.
posted by acb at 2:30 AM on January 12, 2022

A link to the video from the article — That webpage is doing dodgy things to force ads through, so if you just wanna jumpt to the Youtube, here you go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLgl9hYGBhw
posted by andreaazure at 3:22 AM on January 12, 2022 [5 favorites]

Needs the Benny Hill theme music.

And yes, best title ever.
posted by PhineasGage at 4:05 AM on January 12, 2022

Needs the Benny Hill theme music

I strongly recommend that you stop whatever you are doing right now and run the YouTube video through the BennyHillifier.
posted by verstegan at 5:37 AM on January 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

Thank you, verstegan, I needed that. Here's the Benny Hill-ified link
posted by tigrrrlily at 8:27 AM on January 12, 2022 [3 favorites]

Glad I've got steak tonight. Those ostriches made me hungry for red meat.

Ostriches have steaks nearly as good as beef!
posted by Goofyy at 3:21 PM on January 12, 2022

No better title ever!
posted by nostrada at 3:25 PM on January 12, 2022 [1 favorite]