When an emu recently was found wandering on Hwy. 20, a Forsyth County Animal Control officer didn't think too much of it.

"I don't put anything past anybody nowadays. We've had everything from goats to emus to horses," said Sgt. Brian Deblois. "We just deal with it when it pops up."

The large flightless bird, native to Australia, was causing traffic problems on Hwy. 20 at Evans Farms Drive in west Forsyth on a recent Saturday.

Deputies dealt with it for about 90 minutes. Animal control then sent out an officer for an unusually successful trip to the shelter.

"Typically, [emus] don't make it through the capture process. They're prone to heart attacks and stuff like that," Deblois said. "We were quite fortunate."

Deputies canvassed the area and could not find any emu owners, he said. The bird was turned over to the animal shelter.

Its owner was not found, but a shelter representative said the emu has since been relocated to a farm.

Though lost emus aren't common, Deblois said it wasn't the first local encounter with one.

"When the market crashed with the whole emu meat and egg thing back in like '98 or '99, our whole north end of the county was just infested with them," he said.

The birds can be aggressive, Deblois cautioned, so people should not approach one.