Ostrich

This article profiles a turn up for the books in relation to an alternative to cows blocking rural roads. I have long been interested in exotic charismatic mega fauna which now populates the British Isles: Black Cats (my friend Terry claims to have seen one in County Durham), Coypus and Wallabies and on the strength of this story the world’s tallest bird certainly deserves its place in that list. It tells us:

An ostrich caused traffic chaos in Tunbridge Wells after running beside cars at more than 40mph.

The escaped bird was spotted running past 20 cars on the main road between the villages of Rusthall and Speldhurst in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Adult ostriches can run up to 60mph and grow to more than 9ft-tall, but this youngster is just over 2ft-tall, but can still run at more than 40mph, according to locals.

Motorists slammed on the brakes after spotting the flightless bird speeding up and down the busy main road – causing queues of more than 20 minutes between 8.30 and 9am.