Moar emus

December 12, 2013 • 8:57 pm

Okay, ever since Matthew put up that video of emus playing with a Weaselball™, I’ve been fascinated by these birds. Their movements are so strange, they have only the smallest vestiges of wings, and they’re the closest thing I’ve seen to dinosaurs in the avian world. We’ll have more about them as I educate myself on the side, but for now we’ll just learn that they’re Australia’s largest bird, are in the single species Dromaius novaehollandiae, and, if this video is what I think it is, have a mating ritual that’s plenty weird.

37 thoughts on “Moar emus”

  1. I’m Aussie born and bred and I haven’t seen or heard of this energetic, creative dance. Thank you – shall pass it on..

  5. …a mating ritual that’s plenty weird.

    Whereas speed-dating and clubbing aren’t weird at all.

  6. Also check out or other big, flightless bird the cassowary. I’ve been lucky enough to see a couple of these in the wild.

  8. I live in New Zealand. Moas, a cousin of the emu,were once the largest non-flying birds in this part of the world. The Maoris, arriving here about 1,000 years ago, drove them almost to extinction, but some Europeans apparently finished them off when they stumbled across the last colony in the fiordland’s southwestern corner of the country, ate them, and truly ended the moas existence on Earth. Too bad, as they appear to have been lovely birds. I hope the emus can continue living their lives in Australia. They, too, are wonderful birds.

    1. In the words of the poet:

      No moa, no moa, in old Aoearoa,
      Can’t get ’em, they’ve ‘et ’em.
      They’re gone and there ain’t no moa.

      2. It made me weep! All lovely and sad at the same time. Sounds like it would do well with some country music behind it.

    3. …but some Europeans apparently finished them off when they stumbled across the last colony in the fiordland’s southwestern corner of the country, ate them, and truly ended the moas existence on Earth.

      Can you document that claim, which is new to me?

  9. some say that modeling my mating ritual after the Emu’s was my greatest mistake…

    But I refuse to change…the law of averages of my friend, the law of averages…

    1. Ha ha! What made the emu evolutionarily successful, did the opposite for humans. Never take advice from an emu.

  11. Well, this male emu is using what he has, that is, a long neck and legs to catch the female’s attention. In that way, all the species are similar I suppose.

    Could human ballet be regarded as a mating dance? 🙂

  12. Could this “website” become any cooler? Emus! I have been wanting to keep emus for a while now, not only for their beauty and dinosaur-like qualities, but also to give Mr.Fox (a regular visitor to my chicken coop) a nasty surprise. That said, seen how they react to a simple ball with tail, a fox may be too much for them…

    1. You should get a donkey. People keep donkey’s to protect cattle from wolves so it would probably work with a fox. Just be nice to your donkey as they require special care and are dear animals (I donate to a local donkey sanctuary each year).

      1. Didn’t George Carlin re-word the Ten Commandments to something similar? Along the lines of, “Be kind to he and / or she who owns the ass you covet?”

        I’ve thought it would be neat to do an extended backpacking / photography trip with a donkey hauling the heavy stuff. It wouldn’t be (much) more than I could carry myself, so it should be a walk in the park for the donkey. And I know just the part of the country to do it in.

        I just don’t know when I’d be able to do it, or where to find the donkey….

        b&

        1. I also seem to recall a funny Tim Minchin song (one of a series on the seven deadly sins I think?) about envy titled “My Neighbour’s Ass”.

          I am not sure where to find them within the US, but if you were ever to do such a trip in Mexico finding and hiring a burro would be rather easy. I have worked in some hard to get places there, and have at times used donkeys and horses to carry supplies up hills and the like.

          1. As many places as I’d love to visit in Mexico, there’re a few too many kidnappings and the like for me to e interested in going there any time soon.

            I know, chances are good I’d be just fine. But I’d be more comfortable and less paranoid and better able to enjoy myself after things settle down a bit.

            b&

      2. I’d love to get a donkey or two, they’re right up there on my list of animals I would like to keep, right after emus (and alpacas). As soon as my life becomes somewhat less peripatetic I will. Donkeys are great, and you’re right that they need to be taken care of, with proper shelter etc. They’re often rather smart, too. My great-uncle, who lived on a small Swiss mountain farm 3-4 km from the nearest village, had a donkey who every morning would walk down the trail to the village by himself, stop by the general store to pick up supplies, and then would walk back up to the farm by lunchtime.

    2. I’ve seen an emu that was being kept away from food by three horses eventually win a place at the table. The emu may need some warm up time to become meaningfully aggressive. The horses and maybe the fox might just get so freaked out by the emus erratic behavior that the opponents let the emu have its way.

  13. and they’re the closest thing I’ve seen to dinosaurs in the avian world.

    To use a signature line that I use on another site, “Birds are not dinosaur descendants ; birds are dinosaurs, for all meaningful values of “birds“, “are” and “dinosaurs.”
    Birds are maniraptorian theropod dinosaurs with a number of unusual anatomical adaptations related to flight. How different their physiology is to their ancestors is a very open question.
    (Actually their anatomical differences are not so unprecedented either amongst their relatives. Look at Mononykos for one weird set of arm modifications, and the better-known T.rex for a different set of arm modifications.)

      1. Like I said, I’ve been using that signature on another forum for – a while. Perhaps a couple of years. But the idea goes back … probably to Bob Bakker’s late-70s polemics.
        I really moved gear to the “birds are dinosaurs” camp after a long weekend at Solenhofen as part of my eclipse-chasing in 1999.

  16. I’ve seen several men in dance clubs trying those moves to pick up women. Usually with the same result.

  17. That neck. That fabulous neck! Who the hell needs wings when you have a third giant limb in a central position?

    Just watch out for that Van Damme side-kick though. Put a big flamin’ hole in your ute.

    Speaking of drumsticks (as someone mentioned upthread), some people do farm these dinos for meat. I had a sample of smoked emu once and it was a little like corned beef – never tried it again though. I love these mad buggers.

  18. BTW (trivia alert): the novaehollandiae, for anyone unfamiliar with Oz history, is the Latin for “New Holland”, an old European name for Australia. Other early descriptors include Terra Incognita (disguised land), Terra Nullius (land owned by noone – this would have come as a surprise to the Aborigines who’d been there for 50 thousand years) and finally Terra Australis (south land).

    More, somewhat sad trivia: though there’s just one emu species today, before the arrival of trigger-happy and forever-starving Europeans there were five or so subspecies of emu dotted about the country, discernible by variations in colouring.

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