Dog walker bluff charged by pack of territorial emus
August 22, 2024 5:38 AM Subscribe
Dog walker bluff charged by pack of territorial emus in startling confrontation.
Ruby Buchanan was getting ready to take her dogs for a walk when she and a friend were "fully charged" by four emus outside Broken Hill. A ranger says the large flightless birds can attack around June as chicks mature. It is worth noting that emus will often do bluff, no-physical-contact charges as a first warning, and potentially escalate to physical contact if their bluff charges are ignored.
Emus! They cannot fly, but they are swift runners.
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:51 AM on August 22
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:51 AM on August 22
They are just saying "emu-ve along, now."
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:10 AM on August 22 [2 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:10 AM on August 22 [2 favorites]
Australian army declares war against emus. Loses.
The end of that story is really sad.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:23 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
The end of that story is really sad.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:23 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
Emus! They cannot fly, but
they surely are swift runners.
Don't ignore their bluff.
There. Haiku'd it for you.
posted by chasles at 6:31 AM on August 22 [4 favorites]
they surely are swift runners.
Don't ignore their bluff.
There. Haiku'd it for you.
posted by chasles at 6:31 AM on August 22 [4 favorites]
My brother is a farmer. He was "gifted" with an emu that had escaped from some wildlife farm nearby, we suppose because his was the nearest farm and the owner was uninterested in getting it back. The emu was put in an enclosure with a small herd of sheep, being the only enclosure available. The ram, investigating this newcomer, discovered what an emu is capable of when it feels threatened... ass-over-teakettle across the yard. The sheep left the emu alone after that.
As the emu grew more territorial, my brother also had several close encounters with the bird. The thing is, if you are an animal on a farm, you have one rule you need to embrace: do not mess with the farmer.
We had emu hors d'oeuvres at Christmas that year.
posted by skippyhacker at 6:33 AM on August 22 [6 favorites]
As the emu grew more territorial, my brother also had several close encounters with the bird. The thing is, if you are an animal on a farm, you have one rule you need to embrace: do not mess with the farmer.
We had emu hors d'oeuvres at Christmas that year.
posted by skippyhacker at 6:33 AM on August 22 [6 favorites]
Tangential: this Be Casso-WARY sign.
"ITS FEET ARE DAGGERS AND IT IS ALWAYS ANGRY"
... MetaFilter?
posted by The Bellman at 7:22 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
"ITS FEET ARE DAGGERS AND IT IS ALWAYS ANGRY"
... MetaFilter?
posted by The Bellman at 7:22 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
Some mornings you wake up in a miserable mood and basically the only thing that can bring you out of it is reading about birds in Australia doing crime. Thank you for this.
posted by thivaia at 7:24 AM on August 22 [4 favorites]
posted by thivaia at 7:24 AM on August 22 [4 favorites]
Someone getting into the Mad Libs headline generator again?
(Btw Emus are not to be trifled with. And the baby emus in the pic are cute.)
posted by azpenguin at 7:25 AM on August 22
(Btw Emus are not to be trifled with. And the baby emus in the pic are cute.)
posted by azpenguin at 7:25 AM on August 22
worth noting that the Emu War was sarcastically named by the Australian press - any other country would have just declared this some kind of army training operation, but we thought it funny to mock the army by calling it a war, and I think you will agree that this was the right decision
posted by Merus at 7:28 AM on August 22 [3 favorites]
posted by Merus at 7:28 AM on August 22 [3 favorites]
why did I watch that video? there were barely any emus in it.
posted by mattgriffin at 7:52 AM on August 22
posted by mattgriffin at 7:52 AM on August 22
(CW: bruises, stitches, emu attitude) Semiannual response to the FAQ "what if Karen gets you?"
posted by Lyn Never at 7:55 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Lyn Never at 7:55 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
Emus can be real assholes.
posted by Chuffy at 8:07 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Chuffy at 8:07 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
I see that Emus exist in the same sphere as polar bears on the Terrifying Adult === Most Cutest Babies spectrum.
those tiny emuettes are sooooo cute!! (gonna stay away from mom and dad tho)
posted by supermedusa at 8:49 AM on August 22
those tiny emuettes are sooooo cute!! (gonna stay away from mom and dad tho)
posted by supermedusa at 8:49 AM on August 22
Baby emus are very cute. They grow out of it.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 10:55 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 10:55 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
As someone who has had 5 seriously threatening encounters with off leash dogs at my local bird sanctuary that have changed me from a dog guy who grew up with dogs and was comfortable with dogs into someone who is now extremely wary about dogs in all situations....
I'm now on team Emu (and still on team White Gladys).
posted by srboisvert at 11:32 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
I'm now on team Emu (and still on team White Gladys).
posted by srboisvert at 11:32 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
Recently in IL, locals were captivated by the wily adventures of an escaped emu, who managed to cover hundreds of miles and survive two icy winters that should have killed her before finally being recaptured. I think she must have been breaking into barns on the coldest nights…
Anyway yeah, always remember that humans brought a truck-mounted machine gun to the Great Emu War, and the birds still won.
posted by SaltySalticid at 11:59 AM on August 22 [4 favorites]
Anyway yeah, always remember that humans brought a truck-mounted machine gun to the Great Emu War, and the birds still won.
posted by SaltySalticid at 11:59 AM on August 22 [4 favorites]
Emus can be real assholes.
Concur. They take a goose attitude to the next level. And geese really suck, so...
There was an emu farm down the road on dead end road. The neighbors hated it. At one point when there was a big Thing about getting rich on the oil and meat, the guy had over 40 adult emus and quite a few adolescent ones. Do you know what a large flock of upset emus piling up on the fence can do in a bad storm? Emus all over the desert. It took weeks for the guy to round most of them up. They went for miles, and only a few pairs bothered to come back home. A couple were hit by vehicles, a couple were shot by ranchers sick of them coming into their property causing havoc, and one pair managed to elude capture and coyotes to raise chicks. They were eventually captured when because the youngins couldn't move fast enough and the adults wouldn't leave them. I never had any reason to ride past the place on my horses and never encountered the escaped emus when riding
However, there was a fella about 6 miles down with a pair of ostriches I passed fairly frequently. I've been able to get my horses trained to accept many, many weird things that other horses don't deal with, but those ostriches always terrified them. It was an interesting quarter of a mile riding past the place with all the snorting, shying, leaping and bouncing around. I must admit when the big male started strutting around, I was also glad to vamoose on outta there.
posted by BlueHorse at 12:17 PM on August 22
Concur. They take a goose attitude to the next level. And geese really suck, so...
There was an emu farm down the road on dead end road. The neighbors hated it. At one point when there was a big Thing about getting rich on the oil and meat, the guy had over 40 adult emus and quite a few adolescent ones. Do you know what a large flock of upset emus piling up on the fence can do in a bad storm? Emus all over the desert. It took weeks for the guy to round most of them up. They went for miles, and only a few pairs bothered to come back home. A couple were hit by vehicles, a couple were shot by ranchers sick of them coming into their property causing havoc, and one pair managed to elude capture and coyotes to raise chicks. They were eventually captured when because the youngins couldn't move fast enough and the adults wouldn't leave them. I never had any reason to ride past the place on my horses and never encountered the escaped emus when riding
However, there was a fella about 6 miles down with a pair of ostriches I passed fairly frequently. I've been able to get my horses trained to accept many, many weird things that other horses don't deal with, but those ostriches always terrified them. It was an interesting quarter of a mile riding past the place with all the snorting, shying, leaping and bouncing around. I must admit when the big male started strutting around, I was also glad to vamoose on outta there.
posted by BlueHorse at 12:17 PM on August 22
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posted by Tell Me No Lies at 5:45 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]