Birds
Emu
Dromaius novaehollandiae · also called emu, common emu
The emu is Australia’s biggest bird and, after the ostrich, the tallest bird alive — a shaggy, long-legged nomad that wanders the continent following the rain, outruns most things that chase it, and hands the entire job of parenting to the male.
Overview
Emus range across almost all of mainland Australia, in savanna woodland, grassland, and arid shrubland, avoiding only rainforest and the most extreme desert. They are highly nomadic, tracking rainfall and the flush of food it brings and covering hundreds of kilometres in a season. They are usually seen alone or in small groups, gathering into larger loose flocks where food is abundant.
Built to run
An emu is 1.6–1.9 metres tall but can sprint at nearly 50 km/h, with a bounding 2.7-metre stride powered by unusually specialised lower-leg muscles and feet reduced to three toes. Its feathers are double-shafted, each with a second full-length plume growing from the base, producing a loose, hair-like coat that lets heat escape and helps the bird cope with both desert days and cold nights. It can also swim.
The male’s job
Emu breeding roles are reversed. The female lays 5–15 large dark-green eggs and generally departs. The male incubates for about eight weeks, during which he does not eat, drink, or defecate, living off fat and losing roughly a third of his body weight. He then raises the striped chicks alone for up to 18 months, guiding them to food and water and defending them fiercely.
Emus and people
Emus feature on Australia’s coat of arms and in the story of the 1932 “Emu War,” when soldiers with machine guns were sent to cull crop-raiding emus in Western Australia and were effectively outmanoeuvred by the birds. Today emus are farmed worldwide for meat, leather, and oil.
Status
The common emu is Least Concern and widespread on the mainland, having if anything benefited from the extra water provided for livestock. Three island subspecies — on Tasmania, Kangaroo Island, and King Island — were driven extinct by hunting and habitat clearance in the decades after European settlement.
Emu: common questions
How big and fast is an emu?
An adult emu stands 1.6 to 1.9 metres tall and weighs 30 to 55 kilograms, making it the second-largest living bird by height after the ostrich (the cassowary is heavier but shorter). Despite that bulk it is a superb runner, reaching close to 50 km/h and covering ground with a bounding, almost floating stride nearly three metres long thanks to specialised calf muscles and a reduced number of foot bones. Emus can keep up a fast pace for long distances, and they can also swim across rivers when they need to.
Is it true the male emu raises the chicks?
Yes, entirely. After a female lays a clutch of 5 to 15 large dark-green eggs, she typically leaves, sometimes to mate with another male, and the male takes over completely. He sits on the eggs for about eight weeks and during that time does not eat, drink, or pass waste, surviving on stored body fat and losing around a third of his weight. Once the chicks hatch he leads, feeds, broods, and defends them — aggressively — for up to a year and a half, teaching them where to find food and water.
What was the "Emu War"?
In 1932, after large numbers of emus moved into the wheat-growing districts of Western Australia during a drought and began damaging crops, the Australian government sent soldiers with machine guns to cull them. The birds proved remarkably hard to kill — they scattered, ran in unpredictable directions, and absorbed hits — and after expending thousands of rounds for a few hundred emus the operation was called off, widely reported as a defeat for the army. It is a genuine historical episode, often cited as an example of the difficulty of controlling wildlife with force.
What are emus farmed for?
Emus are farmed in Australia, North America, and elsewhere for three products — lean red meat, tanned leather with a distinctive raised-follicle pattern, and emu oil rendered from the back fat, which is marketed for skin care and as an anti-inflammatory (with limited clinical evidence). The birds are hardy and efficient grazers. Escaped farm emus have established small feral populations in a few places outside Australia.