Most jobs require training with periodic refreshers. When you have a hands-on job like a zoo keeper, training for animal escapes and other emergencies is imperative. Keeping employees engaged during training is a task almost no one is good at. However, the zoo director at the Rockhampton Botanic Gardens & Zoo, wearing an ostrich costume, managed perfectly. She was able to accomplish training, give everyone a great laugh, and keep the entire team engaged!
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The training exercise was on How to Contain a Runaway Cassowary. The costume shop was out of cassowary costumes, so the zoo director chose the ostrich costume. When an animal escapes its enclosure, personnel must work quickly and efficiently to return it.
During zoo hours, they must protect patrons and present a united front. That takes practice. The zoo director decided having staff chase her in the ostrich costume would be a realistic training exercise. The zoo posted a longer video on Facebook that is even more hilarious than the shortened TikTok version. You can watch that video here.
If you aren’t sure what a cassowary is, it is a large, flightless bird that is a cousin of the ostrich. The similarity is why the zoo director was comfortable selecting the ostrich costume. The ostrich is the largest in size order, followed by the cassowary and emu. The cassowary has distinctive blue and yellow feathers along its neck. They are known as the “most dangerous bird in the world.” They have deadly claws, a powerful beak, and a lot of weight to put behind blows.
The Zoo Director’s Ostrich Costume Makes A Big Hit
When the call went out, zoo keepers were not told it was a training drill. The initial call-out was for an escaped cassowary, with the location. Nobody knew it was training until they arrived to find the zoo director in her ostrich costume. When they got to the scene they were ready to wrestle an unruly cassowary. They brought containment panels called baffle boards. Then they noticed their boss strutting her stuff.
The boss was acting the part all the way. While waiting, she was pretending to forage on nearby vegetation. When the team of zoo keepers arrived, she went full cassowary. She kicked at the baffle boards and pushed back against the barrier. She used the beak to peck at the handlers above the boards.
It was the most realistic training they could have without actually letting a real cassowary out. The boss did not make it easy on them. When they thought the unruly bird was secure, she bolted off in a different direction.
The zoo director finally let the team “capture” the stray ostrich/cassowary. Everyone had a fabulous time during training. They worked together to corner the animal and steer it back to its enclosure. While the training wasn’t horribly serious, it was realistic and helped the team work together. They did very well carrying out the standard procedures and still had some laughs.
Kudos to this zoo director for putting so much effort into vital training.
Please share if you laughed.
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here.
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