An emu on the loose in a small New Hampshire town caught some residents by surprise over the weekend and police tried to track down where the big bird belonged -- perhaps somewhere closer than Australia where it's indigenous.
Authorities in the town of Bow told television station
WHDH-TV they started receiving calls from residents who spotted the bird walking around town. The emu seemed comfortable enough around humans and it walked right up to a police officer who didn't exactly embrace the bird.
Police believe the emu may have bolted from a farm in the area but had no luck identifying the bird's owners after contacting several farms, said the
Boston Globe.
Bow Police Sgt. Art Merrigan told
The Associated Press he didn't believe the bird was dangerous, but his department wasn't equipped to capture an animal like an emu.
A wildlife rehabilitator was called in to assist in tracking the suspect down.
The Bow Police Department posted a video of the bird on its Facebook page.
"Tall and majestic, the emu belongs to a group of flightless running birds known as ratites, the most primitive of the modern bird families," says the
San Diego Zoo website. "The ratite family includes the kiwi, ostrich, cassowary, and rhea, all birds found only in the Southern Hemisphere.
H'mmm. Last we checked, New Hampshire was still north of the equator.
"The emu is the second-largest living bird in the world (the ostrich is the largest). Adult female emus are larger and heavier than the males," said the zoo website.
Some on social media took the emu sighting in stride.
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