Ostrich running loose on a road in Seongnam (Photo: a screenshot from an online forum)
SEOUL, Mar. 28 (Korea Bizwire) – An ostrich that caused a commotion by running loose on a road in Seongnam, South Korea, had lost its partner about a month earlier, officials said on March 27.
According to the Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters, multiple reports came in around 9:30 a.m. on March 26 that an ostrich was roaming a street in the Jungwon district of Seongnam.
Firefighters dispatched to the scene found the bird an hour later at around 10:25 a.m. on the grounds of a factory building in the Sangdaewon neighborhood and safely captured it. The ostrich had apparently escaped through a gap in a wire fence from a nearby ecological experience park.
The ostrich itself was unharmed and returned to the ecological park where it resided. (Photo: a screenshot from an online forum)
Though the ostrich was filmed running alongside buses in traffic and nearly colliding with an oncoming truck in the opposite lane, no injuries or property damage occurred. The ostrich itself was unharmed and returned to the ecological park where it resided.
The male ostrich, nicknamed “Tadori,” was raised at the park after being brought there as a chick under a year old in July 2020, officials said. It had been paired with a female ostrich called “Tasuni” from the same age group, but Tasuni recently died, leaving Tadori alone for about a month.
Park officials suspect Tadori, which had been close friends with Tasuni since they were young, became highly stressed from suddenly being alone after her death, leading to the escape.
Sero, the zebra (Photo: a screnshot from an online forum)
Last March, a zebra named “Sero” captured public attention after breaking out of Seoul’s Children’s Grand Park and roaming city streets for about three and a half hours before being captured. Sero had lost its mother in 2021 and its father in 2022 after being born at the park in June 2019.
Zookeepers believed Sero’s abnormal behavior like refusing to return indoors and fighting a neighboring kangaroo stemmed from the trauma of losing both parents. The park introduced a new female zebra named “Coco” last June, but she unexpectedly died about four months later from complications during labor.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
