Two Hours of Running and a Pear: How Animal Control Captured an Emu in Boston

Sometimes, animals are found in places where they should not be. Many of them escaped from their cages and thought of running around the streets. Well, it has happened a lot for some time now, and just recently, an emu escaped from a property on Haverhill while preparing for its relocation.

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What's An Emu? The Bird Who Roamed the Streets of Boston

Kermit, the Emu, Roams Local Streets of Boston

Authorities from Haverhill, a city north of Boston, said that they had captured an escaped emu after it was spotted roaming local streets. According to reports, the large flightless bird, named Kermit, escaped from a property near the area while a resident from Haverhill was preparing to relocate the emu into a farm in Maine.

It was only after two hours that the authorities caught the emu. According to them, they captured the animal through the help of an animal control officer who enticed the emu by feeding it a pear from a nearby tree.

Emus are the second largest bird after ostrich that can reach almost 100 pounds and could be as tall as six feet. Emus are mainly found in Australia.

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Common Emu Facts

Like the ostrich, an emu is a flightless bird with small wings relative to its body and can also run fast. It has long and powerful legs, three forward-facing toes to grip the ground that thrusts it forward, helps it to run up to 30 miles (50 kilometers) per hour.

Although native in Australia, emus can also be found in other countries like Indonesia, New Guinea, the Philippines, and the Solomon Islands.

Emus have grayish-to-brownish body feathers that provide them protection from the heat of the sun. They live in forests, grasslands, and savannas and prefer areas with access to water even with their seemingly perfect natural sunscreen.

In terms of reproduction, emu mating pairs stay together for up to five months. The female emus then lay large, emerald green eggs on their expansive ground nests, and like penguins, the males take care and incubate the eggs, which would last for seven weeks without drinking, eating, defecating, or leaving their nests.

Meanwhile, female emus have often moved on by then and sometimes start mating with a different male emu in the same season. Emu chicks would stay with their dads for four months until they can feed themselves.

Early in the history of emus, they have faced numerous terrestrial predators that are now extinct. These include Megalania, thylacine, and perhaps other carnivorous marsupials, which explains their well-developed defense ability against predators.

Today, their main predator is the dingo, which kills them by attacking their heads. As a response, the emu would try to jump and kick or stamp the dingo on its way down. It needs a correctly timed leap to coincide with the dingo's lunge to protect its head and neck.

But aside from dingos, emus are also threatened by wide-tailed eagles, snakes, and other nest-raiders that devour the emus' eggs. Humans also are one of their predators as these flightless birds are farmed for their meat and eggs. One egg of emu can make an omelet big enough to feed six adults.