Watch RCMP chase down escaped ostriches running amok in Taber, Alta.

Mounties in the Alberta town of Taber were hit with an unusual task Thursday: Rounding up a herd of ostriches that escaped from a farm.

And, like the mounted police of old, they got their man.

“We received multiple calls,” said Cpl. Troy Savinkoff with the southern Alberta RCMP district. “A lot of the calls we received were immediately with the caveat ‘This is not a prank call.’”

The clarity, doubtless, was important. The herd ran amok through Taber — perhaps best known for its bylaw against swearing, screaming or yelling in public — after they got out of an enclosure shortly before 8 a.m. One ostrich, sadly, was killed on the highway nearby where they escaped.

It took more than five hours to catch them all.