The Great Emu War

Day 44 / 365

This is an emu, a flightless bird native to Australia. It is the second largest living bird after the ostrich. They are 6 ft tall, weighing around 50kgs and can run at speeds up to 50km/hr.

In 1932 the Australian military waged a war against the emus. And spoiler alert — the emus won.

What was the reason for The Great Emu War?

In 1932 there were about 20,000 emus in Western Australia, and they were running havoc on the farmlands. Not only were they destroying the crops they were leaving large gaps in the fences as well, allowing rabbits and other animals to come in.

Some of the farmers who were affected were ex. military men from world war I. They had the bright idea of getting assistance from the military to basically massacre the emus with machine guns. Surprising the defense minister agreed. Soldiers with machine guns were deployed with the excuse of it being good target practice.

And so it began.

The Attack on The Emus

November 2

The men sighted a flock of about 50 birds and chased them with machine guns. The birds split into small groups rendering the guns ineffective. perhaps a dozen birds were killed.

November 4

About a 1000 emus spotted near a local dam. This time the men waited for the birds to get in close before firing. Their guns jammed after only killing twelve birds and the ambush was a failure.

November 8

About a week after the first attack, 2500 rounds of ammunition have been fired, killing little over 50 birds.

Victory for the Emus

The soldiers even with their guns and trucks were no match for the emus. Following the negative coverage in the media, the Australian military accepted defeat and withdrew their troops.

The Emus continued to destroy the farmlands. Further requests by the farmers to get military assistance were denied. Eventually, people started using exclusion barrier fencing to keep the emus out of their lands.

Out of all the hilarious facts about this historical event, this quote from one of the military men is my favorite

“The emus have proved that they are not so stupid as they are usually considered to be. Each mob has its leader, always an enormous black-plumed bird standing fully six-feet high, who keeps watch while his fellows busy themselves with the wheat. At the first suspicious sign, he gives the signal, and dozens of heads stretch up out of the crop. A few birds will take fright, starting a headlong stampede for the scrub, the leader always remaining until his followers have reached safety”

This story is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog —Will we ever be able to read images from our brains?