In the 1990s, Texas ranchers invested in emus as a potential replacement for beef, but the market collapsed and many emus were released into the wild. The large birds became a nuisance, with reports of them causing car accidents and scaring farm animals. Emus are the second largest bird and have unique muscles in their calves. In courtship, the female pursues the male and then leaves the nesting to him.
Texas usually conjures up images of wild horses and herds of cattle, but these aren’t the only large creatures known to have passed through the state. Some are of the two-legged avian variety.
In the early 1990s, many Texas ranchers opted for the emu craze, pinning their breeding hopes on the Australian bird that some believed would replace livestock as the meat of choice for millions. But by the middle of the decade, it became clear that beef wasn’t going to be beaten, and the emu market quickly collapsed. With an expensive feeding schedule and no one to buy their meat, emus quickly became too expensive to keep, and many ranchers let them run free.
In the late 1990s, hundreds or even thousands of large birds were in the wild. There have been reports of emus forcing cars off highways, scaring farm animals and farm owners, and a general nuisance. Animal control and law enforcement personnel were inundated with calls, but had limited resources and limited experience with such creatures.
“We sent our cowboys after the first emu, and that emu whipped our cowboys pretty bad,” Grayson County Deputy Chief Waldrip told the Dallas Morning News in 1998. “The cowboys said, ‘We stopped . We quickly realized that we weren’t prepared to deal with this problem.”
The amazing and funny emu:
Emus are second to the ostrich in bird size, with some growing to about 6 feet (2 m) tall and 120 pounds (54 kg) in weight.
Emus are the only birds with gastrocnemius muscles, which on a human form what we call the calf.
In the courtship of the emu, it is the female who pursues the male and, after laying the eggs, gives the task of nesting to the mate.
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