The Australian Emu is not a smart bird...
They are much like the Ostrich except not
quite as large, if you've ever hand fed an Ostrich you will know just what it's
like to feed an Emu.. they peck the heck out of you.
They have a cavernous beak
but the aiming system is a bit wonky and they slam that huge beak into your
hand like a mental, oversized Woodpecker.
Even so they are a nice animal in
most other respects and I have a soft spot for them.
Each year we get a lot of these huge birds
come down from the waterless desert areas for food and water, they work their
way South as the Summer heats up then work their way North again during the
Winter.
This year these two young birds got trapped between the low coastal salt flats and the wire fence that keeps animals off the roads. The food supply in this area is along the road where the sparse rains flow off the roads and keep the nearby bushes growing.
I stopped to film them a couple of times
when I was going to and from my favourite fishing spots. Over the weeks they tramped
up and down a short stretch of highway but couldn't work out how to get to the
other side of the fence... I had great fears for them.
You can see why they tend to get run over,
their colour is perfect camouflage for the Aussie bush and if you don't see
them moving you just don't see them at all.
One day I saw one dead on the side of the
road, clearly hit by a vehicle.
A few days later the other one was dead not
a kilometre away from his mate.
This makes me very sad, these poor dumb but
innocent birds killed by cars and trucks during the annual migration that's
been happening for centuries before cars were ever invented.
I tend to agree
with the radical greenies who insist that there should be no fences in the
outback except around Sheep and Cattle stations.
.
