not exactly beautiful, but a couple of these are loose about 25 miles from where i live
Escaped 'Big Birds' on the loose in Harrow
Harrow residents are on the lookout for two escaped emus that have been seen peering in windows and chasing cyclists.
Known as Big Bird 1 and 2, the escapees have been gone from a McCormick Road farm outside Harrow for a few weeks. One emu, the female of the pair, had been captured but escaped again a few days ago.
Owner Sandy Soulliere, who rescued the pair from the butcher’s knife in September, said the brownish, black coloured feathers on the flightless birds make it easy for them to hide in nearby woodlots. They may be easier to spot if it snows. She said they’re likely surviving on corn left in fields and plants.
“I’ve been getting reports saying ‘Well, your Texas turkey is back here. Come on and get it. Your emu’s peering into the windows here over to the house. And he’s over by the neighbours, he’s over in the ditch, he’s over here, he’s over there,” Soulliere said Monday. “Every time I go over there, they’ve taken off. They’re very fast.”
The escapees are about five foot six and about 100 pounds. When spooked they have jumped over a fence equal to their height. They can run more than 40 km/h.
Soulliere said the curious birds chased cyclists on the nearby Chrysler Canada Greenway perhaps because they’ve never seen a bike before and emus like to run fast.
If seen, do not approach them and try to catch them, Soulliere said. Emus have a powerful front kick that can “land a grown man on his behind,” she said.
Essex police aren’t out searching for the emus but will pass on any emu reports to Soulliere, Essex Police Chief Greg Pigeon said.
“You always have these farms where something happens to the fence or whatever and the horses get out, cows, pigs get out, but I suppose it’s the first time we’ve had to deal with locating an emu,” Pigeon said.
Soulliere, a beekeeper who has a variety of farm animals, said the female emu had been caught but jumped the fence again a few days ago when it was spooked by a horse escaping past an electric fence that had been turned off. Soulliere nabbed the horse and called out for Big Bird.
“I see her take off over the bloody fence, run down the path, away she went,” Soulliere said. “I called her. She saw me and she looked back at me. It’s kind of like she’s running and looking at me at the same time. It’s like ‘See ya.’”
Soulliere said the emus appear to know the way home and will be getting hungry as the temperatures drop. She said she’ll have to invest in a higher fence once she gets them back.
“Come home, emus, come home.”
Rat out the ratites
The emu is part of a group of flightless running birds called ratites. It comes from Australia. Emus have three toes and legs so powerful they can jump seven feet high and when running can have a stride of almost nine feet.
