Six escaped emus wreaked havoc on city roads when the police turned zookeeper to round them up.
The ratites – which have a top speed of 50 km/h – ran free from a farm Michigan on Wednesday morning after windy weather caused a breach in their abode.
Video shows officers equipped with belts and a stick trying to catch an emu walking in a wooded area.
A cop can be heard coaxing the animal, appearing to say “hi, honey” repeatedly before the bird runs in the other direction.
“The family had asked for our help in locating their dislodged emus,” Sheriff Richard Fuller told Fox17. “And the family was concerned that these animals could cause a traffic accident or injure someone.”
The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office warned the public of their escape yesterday on Facebook.
It read, “The emus are on the loose! We are working on a report of six emus on the loose near 6th Street and Stadium Drive.
“Be careful when traveling in the area. Never a dull day.”
Residents were urged not to approach the birds for their own safety and to avoid scaring the animals away when officers tracked them down.
The sheriff’s office said: “We do not recommend approaching stray animals or livestock, both for your own safety and to avoid scaring them into other areas – the owners and our friends at Kalamazoo County Animal Services have more means to secure them.”
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The sheriff’s office responded, “We certainly hope so… we are fast, but not 50 mph fast on foot!”
Emus are large flightless birds in the same family as cassowaries and ostriches.
They are among the largest birds in the world, after ostriches, and can reach heights of over six feet five inches, or about two meters.
The common emu has an average top speed of 50 km/h.