My Emus Got Out! - I learn the hard way how to catch emus-

[ShadowRooster]

Before I start, I will tell you that all of my emus are safely back in the pen. This happened this fall. I thought it may be good to know, and interesting to read.

We had taken apart some of the fence to take one of the emus to the vet (They would not fit though the gate) and screwed the fence shut after, in the same holes. BIG MISTAKE. The wind we had been getting was strong, I don’t know how fast, but it blew the fence-gate open. It was only about 30 mins before someone stopped to tell me the emus were out.

Two of the emus were recent buys, and one was Burnu. The two "Wild Emus" were just that, wild and untamed crazy emus. Burnu was half lap dog. I mean, he walks on a leash! And still tries to sit on your lap! They are all about 7 months old.

We are NOT in the middle of nowhere. I’m right on a busy road and surrounded by houses. There is one corn field behind us.

I had read somewhere that emus can not be herded. THIS IS TRUE. We left the back fence open and tried to herd them back. I called to Burnu, who, after a 30 second freedom run in the field, came back. We put him in the goat pen, witch is attached to the Emu pen, to see if the other emus would just come back.

There was this line around them, that if you did not cross, they would ignore you, if you did, they would take off in a random direction and keep going in till almost out of sight.
Meanwhile, It started to rain. Pouring rain. It was cold out too.

Luckily, the emus were hesitant to go near the road, which has speeding cars consistently. They did going into the neighbors yard once, but they were not home, and we know them well.They stayed in the field. We had people stop and ask if we needed help, but after being charged by the emus a few times, I told them no.

Finally, we got one Emu into the pen. He had wanted to go home. Burnu was easy to get into the goat pen, but the gate it small, only about 2 feet. The Emu would not go in it. So, I tried my first attempt at Emu wrangling. After wrestling the scared wet Emu to the ground, not an easy thing to do, I’m surprised I didn’t get hurt. I made shore to stay behind the Emu. I would NOT try this on a full-grown Emu. I pushed him into the goat pen with some help from my father.

The other Emu, without his brother/sister was desperately tiring to get back in. He/she walked the same part of the fence over and over, but the gate was on the other side. 75 pound bird with head the size of my palm, I couldn’t imagine his brain was that big. We ending up chasing him to the other side of the goat pen, where he joined Burnu and the other Emu.

We fixed the gate. WELL. I don’t think a hurricane could blow it open. This whole thing took place over three hours, but it felt more like 15 mins. I was defiantly ready to go home and take a warm shower.

 

[terrilhb]

They are adorable. I am so glad they are safe. I had a friend a few yrs ago that came out of work one night in the dark. She heard something running at her and turned and it was an Emu. She threw her bag at it and ran to her car screaming. She did not know at the time what it was. LOL Luckily the owner found it and got it home.

 

[foulman007]

My three got out last summer (some idiot left the gate ajar) they were out all day while i was at work. My neighbour call the local cops who showed up and luckly couldn't find the birds. they had bedded down for the evening. the next morning along came neptune looking for feed and about an hour later the other two. couldnt get them to figure out the gate thing either so i just cut a big hole in the 4x2 where they were and happy emus again.
its amazing how intimidating these birds are my big rednecky hunting fishing neighbour just hid in his house and called the police. he was totally freaked out by the sight of them. makes me waht more of them now that i am in town

 

[Supreme Emu]

I’m not being facetious here, ShadowRooster. Seriously, the only trouble I ever have is getting them OUT of fenced areas! For example, on one occasion Felicity was in the backyard when a car arrived (not a common occurrence). Of course, he panicked.

I have spent time considering the reality of ‘move to siblings,’ which has been a problem on a number of occasions when one emu had a fence between it and its siblings. It panics because it can’t figure out, ‘Okay . . . turn around, exit the back yard through the gate, walk around to my siblings via the orchard.’

Helpful Hint: if you need to get an emu through a gate, position yourself so that it’s a straight line from it to you. Put food on the ground, and quietly call it at length. There much better at straight lines! LURING is effective, herding is not. Minimise movement and sound.

Also, acculturate them to some positive sound (Pavlovian conditioning). My birds know the tok tok tok sound of me tapping on the bottom of their food can. (They endlessly persecute these empty coffee cans. It’s a fact of their world that Yummy for Emus comes from a coffee can. They’ll get down on their knees, and peck peck peck that can around in the vain hope that wheat will appear. I get so much amusement from my emus that I’m surprised it’s not illegal.)

When they are distressed for any reason, quiet speech and the tok tok tok sound can help them overcome panic.

Finally, I note that I am almost dismayed at how food makes them forget that they’re panicked! If your emu gets in a tight spot, dump food in front of it. It will probably forget its concern, and plonk down to eat the windfall.

Supreme Emu

 

[ShadowRooster]

Lol.

That may have worked if the food bin was emty, but these emus are spoiled and have free-choise food. If I were in the middle of nowhere I would have let them come home for food-water at their own pace, but Im not, and I didnt want a pankacke emu or a shot emu. I knew we could get them in, but I did not know if I could before somthing happend.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

One day, driving home in my acreage community, I saw 2 big emu chicks running around in the road. Another passerby had stopped to help shoo them back into their yard. You could hear another emu in the yard squawking to them, don't know if it was their mother? The yard had a high thick hedge around it, and no one was home there. It took me and yet another passerby to persuade these chicks to go back into their yard. They were on a well-traffic-ed road, at an intersection with a blind corner, so they had to be returned to their yard, otherwise they'd either get hit by a car or cause someone to drive off the road in surprise.

These poor emus, they were as big as small burros but as intelligent as baby chicks. They kept running full tilt into the wire fence of the neighbor's yard. We were just trying to herd them slowly into their gate, just walking with arms outstretched, talking gently, moving slowly. We finally got them to go into their yard, and secured their gate closed.