An emu wandering along a Florida toll road Saturday morning gave state troopers a traffic problem that was unusual even by Polk County standards.
The Florida Highway Patrol says troopers were called to the Polk Parkway around 8:30 a.m. Sept. 19 after someone reported the large flightless bird walking near milepost 16.
Troopers found the emu along State Road 570 and managed to corral it without anyone getting hurt.
The bird’s next stop was the back of a Florida Department of Transportation Road Ranger vehicle.
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The emu remained inside the Road Ranger until its owners arrived and completed the recovery, according to FHP.
No injuries were reported.
Troopers also could not resist the obvious connection to Liberty Mutual’s advertising mascot.
“No insurance policies were sold by LiMu,” FHP said.
For anyone unfamiliar with the reference, Liberty Mutual has spent years pairing a fictional character named LiMu Emu with spokesman Doug in its television advertising.
Real emus are considerably larger than the commercials might suggest. The Australian Museum says adult emus can stand nearly 6.5 feet tall and are among the world’s largest birds.
They cannot fly, but they can run. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo says emus can reach speeds of roughly 31 mph.
That makes an interstate-style toll road a particularly poor place for one to take a walk.
This emu’s brief trip ended in the back of a Road Ranger instead.
Florida Highway Patrol photographs from the incident show the bird safely contained after troopers got it off the roadway.