Escaped ostrich? No, he’s just a Thai zoo employee

But when she’s cornered by her pursuers, the strange beast’s true nature is revealed – and the clue is in her black sneakers.

He’s a grown man, in an ostrich costume, and his job is to help train Chiang Mai Zoo staff on how to react if an animal escapes.

Videos shared by the zoo with CNN show the staff member getting ready for their big role; her face is smeared in white paint, her arms are tucked into a giant ball of fabric, and a fake ostrich head is buckled atop her long « neck ».

The bizarre scene that followed, in which he was chased around the zoo’s Africa area on Tuesday, wouldn’t have seemed out of place in a TV show or avant-garde play, but it was actually part of an annual exercise intended to simulate an escape.

The purpose of the exercise was « to establish a state of readiness for real situation management and to prepare measures in case the animals escape, » the zoo said in a statement on Facebook.

The scenario triggered « a reporting system…through the chain of command » and required veterinary and staff teams to « monitor the area in order to capture and return the ostrich to its enclosure », he added.

Staff at Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand, including a man dressed as an ostrich, pose after conducting a training exercise for escaped animals.

Chiang Mai Zoo

The exercise also had staff laughing, some of whom can be heard giggling in the video as the ostrich-man ‘escapes’ and walks around the zoo, shaking his body up and down to mimic ostrich gait.

Others, meanwhile, hunt with portable nets. When their target is finally cornered, using a giant net used to block her path, they place a hood over her head and lead her back to her enclosure with wide smiles on their faces.

Previous iterations of the exercise have been equally colorful. In 2019, a « kangaroo » that jumped out of its enclosure was actually a staff member wearing a red jumpsuit and boxing gloves.

Top image: A worker at Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand dresses up as an ostrich during an annual training exercise to handle escaped animals. Credit: Chiang Mai Zoo