Emus are known for being the second-largest birds in the world. They have impressive speed and running ability. They also have powerful kicks, which are great for defense, which helped lead to the unsuccessful Emu War in Australia during the year of 1932.
What exactly was the Emu War? The Emu War began on November 2nd, 1932, in Australia. Emus continuously migrated to the West Coast in search of food and water due to a drought. After World War 1 ended, this started to cause problems. Australian veterans were given land and encouraged to produce wheat on the Western side of Australia. The land was poor for agriculture, and once 20,000 emus showed up in two cities, Chandler and Walgoolan. The emus destroyed the farms and also damaged fences. Farmers appealed to the authorities seeking assistance with the emus. In response, the government sent the Royal Australian Artillery armed with two machine guns. Heavy rains caused the shots on the flocks of emus to miss. Once the guns were trained, the emus broke into smaller groups, scattering in all different directions at the sign of danger. Two days into the operation, the soldiers changed their tactics and decided to try to ambush the multitude and strong flock, holding back their fire until the emus were too close not to miss. Once the guns were shot, fewer than 1,000 of 20,000 emus were killed, as one of the guns was jammed. The soldiers also attempted to shoot the animals from the back of their trucks, but that plan was also futile. The failure was the subject of national and international ridicule. The army leader, Major G.P.W. Meredith, admitted that he was impressed by the emu’s ability to survive the bullet wounds, saying, “If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds, it would face any army in the world. They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks.”. After six days with the emu fatalities in the low hundreds, the shooting was halted, then ultimately terminated a few weeks later. Subsequent requests for military help were denied. Instead, the government ultimately decided to hire bounty hunters, which, in the same way as the emu war, did little to the emu population. On December 10, 1932, the Emu War officially ended, and the emus won the war.
