Ostrich on a side quest: Runaway big bird sprints on Thai highway

BANGKOK - A pet ostrich went for a speedy jaunt down a busy Thai highway on April 7, before being returned safe and sound to its enclosure at an animal-themed cafe.

The six-month-old male ostrich raced along a three-lane highway in Thailand’s coastal Chonburi province as cars and trucks sped by the flightless bird, according to a video posted by a man who was driving directly behind it.

“Who lost an ostrich on the road? Come get him. He runs so fast,” the motorist, Chairat Sompong, is heard saying in the video.

Mr Chairat, 33, later told AFP that he was driving home when he came upon a traffic jam.

“At first, I thought it was an accident but when I drove close, I saw an ostrich running in the middle lane,” he said.

The ostrich “looked afraid and panicked”, Mr Chairat said, adding that he tried to make it move to the left lane, where it eventually stopped running.

Adult ostriches are the fastest running birds, with top recorded speeds of around 70kph.

The ostrich, named B1, was finally corralled around 15km from its pen in resort town Pattaya, said the animal’s owner, Itsara Boriboon.

“I was mortified and worried,” Mr Itsara, 43, told AFP. “I was concerned he might have had an accident.”

He said he had bought B1 and a female ostrich called B2 five months ago for 15,000 baht (S$590) and neither had fled their enclosure before.

Mr Itsara, who owns a cat cafe that also features the pair of ostriches, said his employees told him B1 had escaped after noise from a truck delivering construction materials frightened off the big bird.

The man who later caught B1 contacted Mr Itsara, who drove to a neighbouring province to pick up his pet.

“I will have to take care of them very well from now on so that this kind of incident will not happen again,” he said. AFP