Over 80 Ostriches Bolting 45 Miles Per Hour Overrun Chinese City After Farm Escape

Over 80 ostriches escaped a local farm in Southern China on Saturday, Jan. 8, causing them to run wild through a Chinese city for hours before a majority of the ostriches were finally caught by authorities.

The streets of Chongzuo in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region had their roads fill up with over 80 ostriches after they escaped a local ostrich farm run by a farmer named Zhong, who immediately called the police in order to help capture the creatures, Global Times reported.

Zhong had said that the gates of the ostriches’ pen were not closed properly that night by accident, causing the horde of flightless birds to run free to the city, according to the Guardian.

Video footage of the event shows the ostriches running alone and in packs in the streets, in the sidewalks, across the streets, and around the general vicinity of the Southern China city, with many of the citizens of the locale recording the unbelievable event on camera.

Authorities say that the birds were running up to around 45 miles per hour and that there was very little traffic at the time of their escape to disturb, allowing the large, heavy birds to roam around the city harmlessly, according to the Times.

Zhong said that the most he had recorded of his ostriches running to are three miles total, which is not as far as they can usually run, as these birds can run from 31 to 43 miles per hour, with its nimbleness owed to how it uses its wings as rudders, according to the National Geographic.

By Saturday morning, over 50 birds had been captured by the farm or by the authorities; however, 10 to 20 birds remain missing, and as of press time it is yet unclear if the birds have been captured or found.