Informational pamphlets from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service says that the Emu is a playful and curious bird that has been known to pull the tail of a sleeping dog and then run as fast as it can to escape its wrath.

They are also quite fascinating to look at. The word emu comes from the Portuguese word 'ema' which means large bird. Standing up to 2 meters tall, the adult male emu is Australia's largest bird and is second only to the ostrich as the world's biggest bird. It is a flightless running bird with powerful legs that give them great speed, some running up to 50 kilometers per hour.

An emu's stride can measure up to 3 meters in length. These legs come in handy since emus do not have the option of flying away from predators. At close quarters their main defense is a swift kick or two, which can be lethal. The Parks literature says that emus have enough leg power to snap fencing wire! When attacked from above by other birds such as the wedge-tailed eagle the emu simply runs fast in a zigzag pattern to escape.

From a bonding point of view these are also interesting birds. After a brief courship and nesting activity the female emu lays between five and twenty dark green eggs in May or June and then summarily abandons the nest area, showing no further interest in her eggs or the male. She may wander off to join a group of non-breeding birds or she may find another mate and lay again.

The male incubates the eggs for 8-10 weeks, rarely leaving them unattended. He will lose a lot of weight during brooding. When the last chick is hatched the male and chicks leave the nest site as a group and will remain together for as long as two years. Unrelated females will sometimes join up with the group.

So much for feminism.


This is an aerial photograph of two emus, taken from a helicopter at about 25 feet