A rhea on the run for a month has finally been caught.
But it is not a the same giant bird which escaped from a farm in Patna, Ayrshire, in July and continues to be on the loose.
The latest rhea, which was originally thought to be an ostrich, had taken flight from a small holding near Forth, South Lanarkshire, in late July.
It was spotted in a field on August 24 and has now been captured by officers from the Scottish SPCA, with the help of a farmer and some locals.
The bird will now be taken to its new home - a wildlife centre.
Inspector Heather Lawson said: "The story of the stray rhea, first thought to be an ostrich, has caused a bit of a stir, with people regularly reporting sightings of it.
"I wasn't sure how we would be able to catch it given the vast area of woodland it was on. However, with a stroke of luck a local farmer spotted the rhea in a field.
"With the help of fellow officers, members of the public and the local farmers, we were able to keep the rhea confined long enough to construct a holding pen before being able to load him safely into a trailer.
"The process was relatively straight forward and stress free and the rhea seems none the worse for its adventure."
The Scottish SPCA are still hunting for a second rhea which went missing with the now captured bird.
Meanwhile, the much-searched for Patna rhea was most recently sighted in a field earlier this month.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article