Dromaius novaehollandiae
emu

Occurs in Australia in all areas except rainforest and cleared land; rare in deserts and extreme north.

In mainland Australia, the emu is widespread. It lives in eucalypt forest, woodland, mallee, heathland and desert shrublands and sandplains. It is found in desert areas only after heavy rains have caused growth of herbs and grasses and heavy fruiting of shrubs. The emu also lives close to Australia's big cities, but is no longer found where native vegetation has been cleared to provide agricultural land.

The emu is the second largest living bird. The height of the emu averages 1.75 m. Females weigh about 5 kg more than males. Emus are large, flightless, shaggy birds. Their loose double feathers, in which the aftershaft (the secondary feather that branches from the base of the main feather) is the same length as the main feather, hang limply from their bodies. Their necks and legs are long, but their wings are tiny, reduced to less than 20 cm. After molting the birds are dark, but as sunlight fades the melanins that give the feathers their brown color, the birds become paler. Emus have three toes. Chicks are striped longitudinally with black, brown and cream, so they blend easily into long grass and dense shrubbery. (Perrin and Middleton, 1985; Grzimek, 1972)

The emu breeding pattern is that of successive polyandry by the female, with male emus taking full responsibility for the incubation and care of the offspring. Before copulation, the female makes dull, rattling sounds that sound like drum beats, and the male begins to build a nest in his territory where the female will join him later. When copulation begins, they stand next to each other with lowered heads and bent necks, swaying their heads from side to side. Then the female sits down, the male sits down behind her and then mounts, grabbing the skin of her nape with his beak. At the same time he utters squeking or purring sounds, and finally he runs away while the female remains sitting. (del Hoyo, Elliot and Sargatal, 1992) The period of incubation is 56 days. Emus pair in December and January, two birds defending a territory of about 30 square km while the female lays her clutch of eggs in April, May and June. The pair stay in the same territory for at least five months before incubation begins. The nest is a shallow depression located next to a bush, made of leaves, grass and bark. It holds 15-25 eggs, which come from several hens. During the period of incubation, the male doesn't eat, drink, or defecate. Once the male starts sitting, many females move away, sometimes pairing with other males and laying further clutches. A few stay to defend the male on the nest, using their loud, booming call. Males are aggressive when the chicks hatch, driving the female away and attacking approaching humans. Newly hatched chicks weigh 440-500 g. The male stays with the chicks, though they lead him rather than the reverse. Lost chicks from other broods are allowed to join another male's group, provided that they are smaller than his own offspring. After 5-7 months the parent-young bond breaks down and the male may then remate for the next season's nesting. At 2-3 years of age, the young are fully mature and capable of reproduction. (Perrin and Middleton, 1985; Grzimek, 1972; del Hoyo, Elliot, and Sargatal, 1992)

In captivity, emu females were able to be left in the same enclosure as the male when he was tending the young, which may suggest some sort of family relationship. (Grzimek, 1972)

The emu is a fast runner and can reach speeds of up to 50 km/h. It is a good, strong swimmer. The males sometimes make calls which sound like "e-moo" and can be heard over long distances. Females make characteristic resonant, booming sounds. They must have daily access to fresh water. Their long legs enable them to walk considerable distances at a steady 7 km/h, or escape danger at 48 km/h. (Perrin and Middleton, 1985; Grzimek, 1972) Its rich diet enables an emu to grow fast and reproduce rapidly. But because such foods are not always available in the same place throughout the year, emus must move to remain in contact with their foods. In arid Australia, the exhaustion of a food supply in one place often means moving hundreds of kilometers to find another source of food. The emu shows two adaptations to this way of life. Firstly, when food is abundant, an emu stores large amounts of fat, and is able to use these while looking for more food. Thus birds that normally weigh 45 kg can keep moving weighing as little as 20 kg. Secondly, emus are only forced to stay in one place when the male is sitting on eggs. At other times they can move without limitation, though at a slow pace when with small chicks. (Perrin and Middleton, 1985)

In Australia, the seeds, fruits, flowers, insects and young foliage that make up the emu's diet become available after rainfall. Thus emus pattern their movements around places where rain has recently fallen. The orientation seems to depend mainly on the sight of clouds associated with rain-bearing depressions, but sound cues from thunder and the smell of wet ground may also be involved. Emu migrations may be a result of man's own actions. The establishment of large numbers of artificial but permanent watering points in the inland, where cattle and sheep are grazed, has enabled emus to expand into places from which they were previously excluded by lack of water. (Perrin and Middleton, 1985)

The emu prefers and seeks a very nutritious diet. They take the parts of plants that have the most concentrated nutrients: seeds, fruits, flowers and young shoots. They also eat insects and small vertebrates when they are easily available, but in the wild they do not eat dry grasses or mature leaves even if they are all that is available. Emus ingest large pebbles--up to 1.6 ounces--to help their gizzards grind up food. They also often eat charcoal. (Perrin and Middleton, 1985)

A wide range of products are manufactured from the emu, especially since the farming of emus began in Australia 70 years ago. It is bred for its meat, as well as the skin for leather products. Emu oil is popular for its medicinal value; one ad reads that 95% of professional sports teams use it for treating injuries ( http://www.hub.ofthe.net/emu/ index.htm). Also, as a by-product of the emu breeding program, 20% of the eggs laid are infertile. These eggs are then used to create hand-carved and hand-painted emu eggs, which sell for as much as $1500. Young emus consume large quantities of caterpillars and grasshoppers. Adults eat masses of burrs which entangle sheep wool. (Grzimek, 1972)

Emus have been accused of stamping down wheat fields and picking up large quantities of grain, and of jumping over barbed wire fences. As a result of farmer's complaints that emus were interfering with their crop production, the "Emu War" was launched by the Australian government in 1932, an attempt at their mass destruction by using machine guns and grenades. The "war" was largely unsuccessful, however, because emus are adept at camouflage and withdrawal; it is reported that only 12 emus were killed. Instead, a 1000 km long fence has been built, and successfully separates the emus from these cereal growing areas of the southwest. (Perrin and Middleton, 1985; Kapala, 1995)

Emus have benefitted from man's activities in inland Australia, because the establishment of watering points for sheep and cattle has provided permanent water where there was none before, and so much of Australia is unoccupied or used as open rangeland that the emu is in no danger of extinction. (Perrin and Middleton, 1985)

The emu lives 5-10 years, and longer in captivity. When eggs are fresh, they are dark green, but become almost black with time.

The emu appears on the Australian coat of arms.