100 Fun Facts About Emu

Among the world's birds, where does the emu rank in height?

Only the two ostrich species stand taller; the emu is the sole living member of its genus, Dromaius.

How tall can an emu grow?

That makes it the second-tallest bird in the world; adults weigh anywhere from 18 to 60 kg.

How fast can an emu sprint?

At full gallop a stride can stretch to 275 cm, thanks to hugely developed leg muscles.

Which parent incubates emu eggs?

He hardly eats or drinks for eight weeks and loses about a third of his weight on the nest.

Which three insular subspecies of emu became extinct after European settlement?

The insular dwarf emus were gone by the 1800s; the mainland bird remains common, at 630,000 to 725,000 in 2009.

The name 'emu' is thought to come from an Arabic word for what, via Portuguese explorers?

Another theory points to the Portuguese 'ema', a large bird like an ostrich or crane.

Europeans first reported seeing emus in 1696 in which part of the continent?

Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh was searching for survivors of a ship missing two years earlier.

Under what name was the emu first described in Arthur Phillip's 1789 Voyage to Botany Bay?

The description noted it lacked the cassowary's helmet and had wings 'totally useless for flight'.

The genus name Dromaius comes from a Greek word meaning what?

So Dromaius novaehollandiae reads roughly as 'fast-footed New Hollander'; John Latham named it in 1790.

The emu's closest relatives are which birds?

A 2014 DNA study gave the emu its own family, Dromaiidae, within a new order Casuariiformes shared with the cassowaries.

The Tasmanian emu became extinct around which year?

The two other island dwarf emus vanished even sooner after Europeans arrived, and the mainland bird remains common.

How many toes does an emu have on each foot?

The toe and claw together run 15 cm, and the claws are the bird's main weapon in a fight.

Emus are unique among birds in that a calf muscle, the gastrocnemius, has how many bellies?

Most birds have three; the emu's leg muscles weigh as much, proportionally, as a flying bird's flight muscles.

What is unusual about the structure of an emu feather?

The double rachis gives a shaggy look; black tips absorb sun while the inner plumage insulates the skin.

An emu's wings are vestigial, but each has what at its tip?

The wing chord is only about 20 cm, but emus still flap them when running, perhaps for balance.

What colour is the skin of an emu's neck, showing through its sparse feathers?

Plumage varies with habitat: rufous on red soils, darker in damp country.

What protects an emu's eyes from dust in windy country?

The secondary eyelids sweep horizontally across the eye like visors.

Emus have a tracheal pouch that becomes more prominent when?

It is more than 30 cm long and thin-walled, and it powers the booming calls.

In the west of the continent, emu movements follow a seasonal pattern of what?

On the east coast their wanderings look random; agriculture and stock water have actually spread them into arid areas.

How long does an emu sleep in a 24-hour period?

It wakes about every ninety minutes to feed or defecate, then folds its neck into an S and sinks back down like a small mound.

Which sex of emu does most of the booming?

The boom announces territory and threatens rivals; the female's courtship calls have been compared to drum beats.

Besides small stones for grinding food, emus are known to eat what puzzling substance?

The reason is unclear; the grinding stones themselves can weigh 45 grams each.

How do emus deal with a fence in their way when raiding wheat and fruit crops?

That knack is part of why the 1932 Emu War was fought and lost.

Which sex of emu is heavier during the breeding season?

Hens are also noticeably wider across the rump, and fights among them for a mate are common.

What colour are emu eggs?

They darken during incubation, but an egg that never hatches bleaches white in the sun.

While incubating, an emu father does what about ten times a day?

Otherwise he does not eat, drink or defecate, surviving on body fat and any morning dew he can reach.

How much of his weight does a male emu lose over the eight-week incubation?

He develops a bare brood patch to keep the eggs warm and stops sitting only just before they hatch.

How long is the emu's incubation period?

Eggs laid days apart still hatch within two days of each other, since later eggs sit at higher temperatures.

Once the male starts brooding, what does the hen usually do?

Infidelity is the norm: up to half the chicks in a brood may not be the sitting male's, and emus also dump eggs in each other's nests.

Which animal is the emu's main predator in modern Australia?

The emu answers by leaping and kicking or stamping on the dingo as it comes down, keeping its neck out of reach.

Which is the only bird of prey capable of attacking a fully grown emu?

It dives at the head and neck, where the emu's anti-dingo jump is no help at all.

Aboriginal hunters sometimes contaminated waterholes with which plant to disorient emus?

Other techniques included nets, spearing at waterholes and dangling a ball of rags to arouse the birds' curiosity.

The Emu War of 1932 was fought in which state?

About 20,000 emus had descended on wheat farms in the Campion district; ex-soldier farmers asked for machine guns.

What weapons did the Royal Australian Artillery use in the Emu War?

Two machine guns and 10,000 rounds proved no match for birds that split into small, alert, fast-moving groups.

The commander of the Emu War, Major Meredith, compared the emus to what?

He also likened them to Zulus 'whom even dum-dum bullets could not stop'; the cull was abandoned.

Major Meredith's report claimed how many confirmed emu kills, at exactly ten rounds each?

He was recalled on 10 December 1932; further requests for the army were refused and fences were built instead.

Roughly how many emus arrived on the Western Australian wheatbelt in 1932 to trigger the Emu War?

They ate and spoiled the crops and tore gaps in fences that let rabbits through.

Many Aboriginal traditions see a giant emu in the sky, formed by what?

A Yuwaalaraay creation story says the sun itself was made by throwing an emu's egg into the sky.

The Kurdaitcha man of the central deserts is said to wear sandals of what to hide his footprints?

One Western Australian story says the first emu was a man whose arms were cut off by a boomerang.

The emu appears alongside which animal as a shield bearer on the national coat of arms?

The arms also appear on the 50-cent coin; the emu is unofficially regarded as the national bird.

The slouch hats of which Australian military unit are decorated with the emu's feathers?

The emu has also appeared on stamps since an 1888 New South Wales two-penny blue.

Which British comedian was famous for a wayward emu puppet?

After his death in 1999 the puppet returned to television in the hands of his son Toby.

Commercial emu farming began in the west of the country around which year?

About a million birds are now farmed in the US, Peru and China; 95% of the carcass can be used.

Emu farmers increasingly rely on sales of what for their profit?

The rendered fat goes into cosmetics and supplements, though the USDA regards pure emu oil as an unapproved drug.

For cooking purposes, how does the US FDA class emu flesh?

Its colour and pH are close to beef, though for inspection it still counts as poultry.

The Dutch expedition that first reported emus in 1696 was led by which captain?

He was searching the western coast for survivors of a ship that had gone missing two years earlier.

Which ornithologist formally named the emu in 1790 from a specimen taken near Sydney?

He collaborated on Arthur Phillip's book and named many other Australian bird species.

How tall is a newly hatched emu chick?

Chicks weigh half a kilogram, wear brown and cream camouflage stripes, and are fully grown in five to six months.

Which extinct giant lizard may have preyed on emus early in the species' history?

Facing such predators, along with the thylacine, may explain the emu's well-developed defensive abilities.

Which denomination of Australian currency carries the emu as part of the coat of arms?

The bird has also appeared on stamps since an 1888 New South Wales two-pence blue issue.

On average, an emu weighs slightly more than which other famous bird?

Only the two ostriches and the two larger cassowaries are heavier, putting the emu fourth or fifth among living birds.

Roughly how long is an emu's bill?

It is soft and surprisingly small for such a big bird, built for grazing rather than tearing.

From how far away can a high-intensity emu boom be heard?

The bird controls the pitch by changing the size of the opening of its inflatable throat pouch.

Across what temperature range can an emu hold its body temperature steady?

On hot days it pants, using its lungs as evaporative coolers, while cold nasal turbinates recapture moisture from every exhaled breath.

Emus were hunted in early 20th-century Queensland for spreading the seeds of which invasive plant?

The cactus was finally beaten not by shooting birds but by the introduced Cactoblastis moth, a landmark in biological control.

Captive emus have been recorded swallowing which of these objects?

Marbles, jewellery, glass shards and nuts and bolts are on the list too, alongside the grinding stones that actually help digestion.

When emus share a waterhole with kangaroos, what do they usually do?

The birds inspect the water and its surroundings as a group before kneeling at the edge, and stand rather than kneel if they sense danger.

In which months do emus form their breeding pairs?

The pair can stay together for about five months, but actual mating waits until the cooler months of April to June.

What happens to a male emu's testicles in the breeding season?

Luteinising hormone and testosterone levels climb at the same time, ahead of eight weeks of fasting on the nest.

During courtship, the bare patches of skin on a female emu's face turn what colour?

Her plumage darkens slightly at the same time, while the male's feathers stay the same and only his skin patches lighten.

How often does a female emu lay each egg of a clutch?

The pair mate every day or two in the meantime, and a clutch runs to between five and fifteen thick-shelled eggs.

How much does a typical emu egg weigh?

At about 13 by 9 cm, each egg is roughly half yolk, a far bigger share than expected for an egg of its size.

The emu provided the first verified bird example of what?

Two chicks from a single egg were shown to share identical DNA, something long suspected in birds but never proven before.

How long can an emu live in captivity?

Wild birds manage upwards of ten years; captive ones roughly double that.

How many documented cases are there of emus attacking humans?

The birds are fiercely defensive of their young, and their legs are strong enough to tear down metal fencing.

Where did a 20th-century introduced emu population die out in the mid-1990s?

A second introduced population, on Kangaroo Island, did establish itself and still breeds there.

Emu hunting features in the Tjilbruke Dreaming story of which Adelaide-region people?

In their language the bird is called kari; Sydney rock engravings and Indigenous dances across the continent also mimic it.

Arrernte cooks stuff an emu's body cavity with what before singeing it on the fire?

The crop is pulled out first, the 'milk guts' are wrapped and cooked separately, and the meat is finished over river red gum wood.

Which state is the only one without licensing rules to protect wild emus from the farming trade?

Commercial flocks are bred in captivity rather than caught, and birds are kept in big open pens to avoid leg and digestive problems.

How much fat does emu meat contain?

The best cuts come from the thigh and the lower leg, and like other poultry it is almost all dark meat.

What is the largest single component of emu oil?

It makes up about 42%, with linoleic and palmitic acids at roughly 21% each, plus carotenoids and flavones as antioxidants.

What gives emu leather its distinctive patterned surface?

It ends up in wallets, handbags and shoes, often stitched together with other leathers.

A 2007 review of which UK law let people keep emus without a licence?

The review decided emus were no longer dangerous enough to regulate, though they still need plenty of space and food as pets.

Roughly how many gazetted places in Australia have 'emu' in their name?

They include mountains, lakes, hills, plains, creeks and waterholes, and countless companies borrowed the bird's name too.

Which US insurer introduced LiMu Emu to its advertising in 2019?

The bird is played by a real emu as well as CGI, with sidekick Doug trying to keep him from acting out.

TikTok star Emmanuel the emu lives on a hobby farm in which US state?

He went viral in 2022 for interrupting his caretaker's videos and knocking over the camera.

What full name does Taylor Blake use to scold her camera-bombing emu?

He shares the farm with a second emu, Ellen, and the two famously do not get along.

In the 1930s, annual emu killings in the west of the country peaked at about how many?

Bounties were still being paid there in the 1960s; wild emus only gained federal protection in 1999.

Which Minister of Defence agreed to send machine guns against the emus in 1932?

He attached conditions: army gunners only, the state paying transport, and the farmers covering food, lodging and ammunition.

Which newsreel company sent a cinematographer to film the Emu War?

Some have argued the government saw the operation partly as a show of support for farmers amid a budding secession movement.

Major Meredith tried to chase the emus by mounting a machine gun on what?

The vehicle could not gain on the birds, and the ride was so rough the gunner never fired a shot.

Ornithologist Dominic Serventy joked that the 'Emu command' had ordered what?

The flocks broke into countless small units, and the 'crestfallen field force' withdrew after about a month.

Which Monty Python member co-wrote the planned comedy The Great Emu War?

His co-writers included Rob Schneider and Jim Jefferies; a separate film called The Emu War premiered at Monster Fest in 2023.

The farmers who demanded machine guns in 1932 were veterans of which conflict?

They had been settled on marginal wheat land after demobilisation, then hit by the Depression and collapsing prices.

The extinct King Island emu was roughly what fraction of the mainland bird's size?

Standing about 87 cm, it was the smallest emu known, with darker, blackish plumage and the familiar blue neck skin.

The last two King Island emus died in 1822 at which institution?

They had first lived in Empress Josephine's menagerie; the wild population was probably gone by 1805, so the captives outlived their kind.

Most of what is known about the living King Island emu comes from Péron's interview with whom?

Daniel Cooper answered a 33-point questionnaire and claimed to have killed 300 of the birds himself in six months.

Péron said King Island emu meat tasted halfway between turkey and what?

He ate it while stranded by storms with the island's sealers, whose dogs were purpose-trained to run the birds down.

Returning to a King Island emu fossil site in 2015, researchers found it had become what?

Denied access at Cape Wickham, they warned that other fossil sites on the island faced the same fate.

Tasmanian Aboriginal people mixed emu fat with ground metal to make 'patener', used for what?

Emu bones were also smashed for their marrow, which was rubbed into the hair and skin.

An 1832 Hobart newspaper compared the vanishing Tasmanian emu to which bird?

The writer urged the government to keep a few pairs in an enclosure; nothing was done, and the subspecies was gone within decades.

Emu the puppet knocked which chat-show host off his chair in 1976?

The host later called it 'that bloody bird' but remembered Hull himself as charming, intelligent and sensitive.

Which US host did Emu attack on The Tonight Show in 1983, against producers' wishes?

Richard Pryor, making one of his first public appearances after major facial surgery, got the same treatment.

Emu's puppeteer died in 1999 after falling from his roof while adjusting what?

It was half-time in a Champions League match between Inter Milan and Manchester United.

Which fellow guest threatened to break Emu's neck during the famous 1976 chat-show attack?

He promised to break the puppeteer's arm as well if the bird came anywhere near him.

Emu, the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union's journal, was founded in which year?

It is the oldest ornithological journal published in the country and carries the subtitle Austral Ornithology.

Emu Field, surveyed by Len Beadell in 1952, hosted which British nuclear test series?

Two tower shots of 9 and 7 kilotons were fired in October 1953; the first cloud drifted north-east instead of dispersing.

Who led the 1790 survey that named Sydney's Emu Plains 'Emu Island'?

The party mistook the flood-prone riverside for an island; a convict farm with 1,326 workers later operated there.

Birds of the extinct genus Emuarius are nicknamed what for their mix of features?

They combined a cassowary-like skull and femur with emu-like lower legs and feet, living in the late Oligocene and early Miocene.

The two animals on the national arms were reportedly chosen because neither can easily do what?

The pair symbolise a nation moving forward, though neither has ever been declared an official animal emblem.