Police and animal protection center officials captured the last of two emus, an ostrich-like bird from Australia, that escaped from a farm in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, earlier this month.
On Wednesday afternoon a 20-member team comprising Takasaki police officers, officials from Gunma Safari Park and a local animal protection center was dispatched to the mountains in Takasaki where the bird was spotted on a steep slope. It took about two hours for them to capture the emu with a net.
According to police and other sources, two emus escaped earlier this month when a man in Takasaki, who was raising eight emus on a farm, tried to transport them to another location.
One was captured soon after by police after receiving a call that the emus were on the loose.
Various witness accounts have been reported, and the latest one was to a neighboring police station on Sunday. Officers spotted the emu but failed to catch it after it ran away up into the mountains.
According to Tobu Zoo in Saitama Prefecture, an adult emu can grow to about 1.8 meters tall and weigh about 50 kg.
Native to Australia, emus cannot fly and are said to possess gentle and friendly personalities.
Because they are not categorized as an animal that poses a threat to humans, anyone can breed them, the zoo operators said.