Therefore, it was only natural that news outlets, online and print, would jump the minute an ostrich was said to have been spotted sprinting down the Federal Highway.
With videos to boot, anyone could see that the ostrich story would soon capture the hearts of Malaysians.
What made it a race for news outlets was the fact that all eyes would be on their headlines.
This wasn’t a run-of-the-mill routine daily news report where editors had to stick to the usual dreary headlines.
Chickaboo, the ostrich, gave editors a chance to let their hair down and come up with quirky and funny headlines.
The most eye-catching has to go to local Malay daily Sinar Harian with their simple and funny “Siapa punya burung terlepas?” (“Whose bird got away?”)
Today, Utusan Malaysia, in their follow-up report on Chickaboo, decided to go with “Tidak mahu berpisah punca burung unta lari” (“Impending separation from owner drove ostrich to run away”).
The Star yesterday made a play on a famous phrase, choosing “Life in the fast lane: Ostrich sprints down Federal Highway” as its headline.
Malay Mail Online, probably rooting for the bird’s freedom, while alluding to a famous line from Forrest Gump, went with “Run ostrich, run! Giant bird makes bid for freedom on Federal Highway”.
“Search for ostrich leads to wild goose chase for now” proclaimed New Straits Times Online in a follow-up report yesterday, as pretty much every news outlet in the country was scrambling for updates on the flightless bird’s whereabouts.
The Sun Daily, probably in a frenzy to inform the public that the ostrich was safe, made a slight mistake in the headline, referring to the ostrich as Peekaboo instead of Chickaboo.
“Peekaboo the runaway ostrich is safe and sound,” said the English daily.
However, the mistake is forgivable as it isn’t every day that one comes across an ostrich making a dash down Federal Highway, bearing the name Chickaboo.
The Borneo Post also didn’t want to be left out of the headline race, coming up with “Ostrich hot foots it down Federal Highway”.
Chickaboo did not only make waves in Malaysia, according to the Internet, with Singapore’s AsiaOne running the story with “Ostrich runs ‘afowl’ on Malaysian highway, but stays within speed limit” as its headline.
9news in Australia also picked up the story, going with the headline: “Escaped ostrich sprints down highway in Malaysia.”
To sum it up, Malaysians were treated to a quirky news day yesterday and mostly everyone enjoyed the ride, with some folks on Twitter posting with the hashtag #savetheostrich.
As for Chickaboo, he is, as reports say, safe and sound at the Ostrich Wonderlands farm in Semenyih, the same place he was heading to yesterday before making a break for it.
Chickaboo’s owner Darren Choy told the media that he was transporting the ostrich to the farm as the six-month-old bird had grown quite big at his bungalow in Petaling Jaya, upsetting his neighbours for some unknown reason.
Probably thinking the grass would never be greener on the other side, Chickaboo made a dash out of Choy’s Toyota Hilux through an open window.
This was when it descended upon unsuspecting motorists on the Federal Highway, sprinting towards Kuala Lumpur, looking as though it was on a mission.
BFM radio station’s Jeff Sandhu, who was on his way to work, happened to be there at the time and managed to record a video of the bird keeping pace with passing traffic.
The next time you’re driving on the Federal Highway, keep your eyes peeled and smartphones ready, because you never know what might just dash past you.