Page 58 - Present Day Wildlife_Float

The Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) is a species of flightless bird and is the only living
member of the genus Dromaius. It is endemic to Australia, where it is the largest native bird.
Many of these flightless birds can grow to a height of around 150 to 190 cm and a length of
about 139 to 164 cm. They can weigh on average around 18 and 60 kg. Females are always larger
than the male. The common emu is the only survivor
of several species discovered in the late 17 century.
th
The Tasmanian, Kangaroo Island and King Island
subspecies all became extinct shortly after the Euro-
pean settlers arrived in the mid-18 century.
th

The emu’s torso is covered with a thick shaggy
grey-brown plumage. Both its long neck and long
legs are almost bare, with only a very thin covering of
hair. It has a small head with a heavy sharp pointed
beak. Its round eyes have a set of secondary eyelids; a
translucent membrane, that sweeps across its eyes
protecting them from dust blown up by the wind. Alt-
hough flightless, the emu still has a small 20 cm long
wing with a claw. It’s thought, they use these wings
as stabilizers. When racing across rough ground at a
speed of 48 km/h, or jumping, the emu will occasion-
ally flap its wings or extend them outward as though
correcting its balance. Emus also have a thin walled
tracheal pouch 30cm long, located in its windpipe.
They use this to make deep-throated guttural grunting sounds. At mating time
this sound becomes more prominent and louder and can be heard over a much
wider area than normal.

Emus live in various habitats across Australia. They tend to avoid large
populated areas, very dry areas and areas that are subject to regular heavy rain
downpours, preferring the sclerophyllous vegetation found in dryer regions,
like savannah woodland and forest that are not subjected to long periods of
heavy rain. In the regions they inhabit they are very mobile, constantly moving
from one area to another in search of food. Emus are monogamists and tend to
live in pairs, these pairs being part of a bigger group. When on the move these
groups can cover around 16 to 20 km in a single day. In the 19 and early 20
th
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century, as man expanded his agricultural land further and further into the
Australian outback, these large groups of mobile Emus would descend on these
fresh crops eating as much as they could before moving on. This inevitably led
to what is dubbed in Australia as the great Emu War, where even the Australi-
an military eventually got involved.

Emus are most active during the daylight hours when they do most of
their searching and eating. As omnivores’ they tend to seek out Acacia, Casuari-
na and grasses, and to supplement their protein needs with insects, like, crick-
ets, beetles and cockroaches. At night they sleep fitfully, constantly getting up
after a short period of sleep, to eat or defecate, before hunkering down again to
sleep for another short period. Even asleep an Emu is on high alert and with its
sensitive hearing will instantly spring to life, at the sound of anything strange.

Emus are egg layers. Once a female lays her eggs it’s the male who incu-
bates them. He can spend weeks incubating the eggs and will fiercely defend
the nest from any attacker. They are accomplished fighters, very agile, can
jump very high, and can inflict life threating injuries using their very strong ro-
bust legs. They have even been known to jump on an animal and stomp it to
death. Adult Emus, therefore, have few predators. However, dingoes, raptors,
and red foxes, prey on emu chicks and if left unattended will plunder the nest
for the eggs.