Some Facts About Australia's National Bird
Emu
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It’s tall. It’s funny looking. It’s got fluffy feathers. – the emu, the avian emblem of Australia. Here’s 11 fun facts you might not know about Australia’s national bird. There are some very good reasons to imagine this bird as a SUPERchook and its credentials are impecable.
Their name is Latin for ‘fast-footed New Hollander’
The emu’s scientific name is ‘Dromaius novaehollandiae’, combining a Greek word meaning ‘racer’ and the Latin term for ‘New Holland’, an early colonial title for Australia. So the full Latin translation? Fast-footed New Hollander. No one’s certain about where ‘emu’ came from, but it’s believed to derive from an Arabic or Portuguese word that explorers used to describe a relative of the emu, the cassowary.
They’re the second biggest bird on earth
The largest emus can grow up to 1.9m (a tick over six foot) in height, bigger than every other bird on the planet besides its ratite cousin, the ostrich, which regularly ranges between 2.1 and 2.8m in its native Africa. Emus normally weigh around 35kg and females are slightly larger because of their big backside, designed for egg laying. Notably, there was a dwarf species on King Island that went extinct in the early 1800s.
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The male incubates the eggs
Emus establish monogamous bonds and when Mrs Emu lays her clutch of eggs, Mr Emu is then responsible for the lengthy incubation period. The 9x13cm eggs turn a rich shade of green over the eight weeks the male sits on them, over which time the he doesn’t eat, drink or defecate for 56 days and losing a third of his body weight – and only really moves to turn the eggs 10 times a day.
They’re significant to Indigenous communities
The emu appears in many different Dreaming stories told by Australia’s diverse Indigenous communities, including a common creation story about how the sun was generated by an emu egg in the sky. Some Indigenous groups also caught the flightless birds with sophisticated traps and spears, using the meat for food, the fat for medicine, the bones for tools, and the feathers for decoration. The emu is a common motif in Indigenous art and ceremonies.
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They’re seriously speedy
Emus’ wings might be vestigial, but that doesn’t stop this flightless bird from being able to seriously get around. Three strong toes on each foot, ‘calf’ muscles in their lower legs and a specialised pelvic structure helps the emu sprint at speeds up to the 80km/h mark, taking strides that are almost three metres long. That pace would make Usain Bolt look like a slow coach.
Emus as a protein source
Delicious grilled, broiled, pan fried, sauteed, roasted, sliced, diced or substituted in your favourite recipes. Emu meat will readily accept marinades within 30-60 minutes. Longer marinating is also acceptable. Since emu is a low fat red meat the cooking methods used need to be modified accordingly. For the best flavour and tenderness cook on med-high heat searing in the natural juices. The steaks of fillets can be butterfly cut to ensure thorough cooking if a well done meat is desired. Take meat off the heat before the pink is out of the middle. Emu meat will continue to cook after removal from the heat, so let the meat set for several minutes before cutting. Always cut against the grain of the meat..
ALSO, just one emu egg will make
an omelette for 6 people.
Grilled Sesame Ginger Steak
4 emu steaks ... 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted
2 Tbsp. ginger, grated or ½ tsp. powdered ginger
2 Tbsp. honey ... 1 Tbsp. soy sauce, low sodium
Combine the first 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
Grill steak over hot coals, basting frequently with soy sauce mixture.
Steaks can also be browned in a non-stick skillet,
then add the soy sauce mixture
and simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Serves 4
They can’t walk backwards
It’s often stated that the emu and the kangaroo were chosen to appear on Australia’s Coat of Arms because they can’t walk backwards, making them suitable symbols of progress. Of course, most animals don’t walk backwards, including the kangaroo, whose tail gets in the way, and the emu, apparently because their knees don’t bend the right way. But hey, that ‘moving forward’ symbolism still makes for a good story.
They appear on Australia’s 50 cent coin
The humble emu is there with its mate, the red kangaroo, on this silver 12-sided coin, as well as on its lonesome on a series of postage stamps since 1888. The Light Horse units of the Australian Defence Force have also worn emu feather plumes in their hats since the late19th century, a tradition that continues today.
Australian Coat of Arms
Humans fought a war against them – and lost. Speaking of the military, the national bird found itself in the crosshairs of Australia’s armed forces in 1932, but somehow emerged victorious. The Royal Australian Artillery deployed troops to the wheatbelt region of Western Australia where huge populations of emus were destroying farmers’ crops, and despite tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, the army failed to halt the march of the emu over a two-month campaign.
However, the story is quite different in Van Diemen's Land where the endemic emu went extinct within about 50plus years of colonisation after 40,000 years of cohabitation with the 'First people'.
You can eat them
The emu was and is an important food source for Aboriginal people. This extraordinary bird did encounter a premature end when they were found by Australia's colonials to be carrying plenty of iron-rich red meat — roughly 14 kilos per bird, according to emu farmers. In Van Dieman's Land emus were unsustainably hunted so as to spare their expensive imported colonial hard hoofed livestock.
Emus aren’t widely farmed, or eaten, in Australia but over years various attempts have been made to do – and they are farmed in the USA and India currently. There is one pub in Sydney’s historic Rocks precinct that cooks up a Coat of Arms pizza, which combines emu and kangaroo with bush tomato, capsicum and lemon myrtle mayonnaise. Increasingly emu meat and eggs are becoming available, mostly to gourmet chefs.
However, in colonial Van Diemen's Land the colonists relied rather tooFre heavily on emus flesh and eggs which on no small way led that emu population's extinction in very sort order.
Plenty of sports teams are named after them
As you’d expect from the national bird of such a sports-mad nation, the emu lends its name to an array of sporting teams in Australia. The under-19s national basketball team, the second-string side on rugby league Kangaroo tours, Penrith’s Shute Shield rugby union outfit and countless smaller community clubs wear the emu on their uniforms.
You can spot them all over the place
Free ranging 'endemic wild' populations of emus are found all over Australia – except in Tasmania where that population of endemic emus went extinct in the mid 1800s. The extinct Tasmanian emu has by and large been forgotten given that its mainland cousins survive and thrive.
Emus inhabit both in arid inland areas of Central Australia as well as along the coast. However, they’re most common in the southeast corner of the country. Tower Hill in rural Victoria is a noted hotspot, while plenty of zoos offer emu-feeding experiences, including Cleland Wildlife Park in Adelaide.
There have at various times been proposals proffered to introduce mainland emus to Tasmania as an environmental management strategy.
Emus as a subject for meat production for human consumption
Emus have been an important protein source for Aboriginal people for thousands upon thousands of tears. Indeed, many of Australia's Aboriginal have relationships with emu that might be regarded as totemic or spiritual. For Aboriginal people emus are something more than 'prey' upon which to predate and in their 'literature and rituals' emus figure large. For this reason, the emu's cohabitation of 'place' has enabled them to survive as long as they did.
In Tasmania, the emu went extinct within two generations of colonisation which in a way reinforces the lot of flightless birds falling victims to colonists wherever they come together – the Dodo for instance and the Moa as well. Just how Aboriginal people husbanded or farmed or ranched emus is largely unknown and their cultural knowledge has not been interrogated all that closely – or looked at at all.
In regard to human food economies, the environmental footprint of raising emus is considerably less impactful than raising cattle. For instance, according to National Geographic, it takes at least 5 acres of land to raise just one cow, but less than 3 acres to raise one emu. Also, each emu yields about 25lbs/11Kilo of meat as well as several gallons of oil, which has multiple applications. They are also relevant as egg producers and could be more so if farmed in larger operations.
Arguably the emu is the SUPERchook in the poultry world and like its companions in the mix they are softer on the earth as a protein producers.The meat contains myoglobin, which is the protein that makes meat red, without the fat content of beef, thus very desirable to health-conscious consumers.
They are also relevant as egg producers and could be more so if farmed in larger operations.
Emus in their 'natural habitats' are nomadic and move according to climatic conditions as well as the availability of water and food sources. The birds will 'stay put' if there is sufficient food and water but emus can travel hundreds of kilometres –12 to 25 km per day – in search of sustenance.
They are also relevant as egg producers and could be more so if farmed in larger operations.
Emus are omnivorous and feed on a wide range of plants and insects that differ in abundance from time to time due to seasonal factors. Insects in their diet may include grasshoppers and crickets, lady birds, caterpillars, insect larvae and ants. They feed on a great variety of fruits, seeds, growing shoots of plants, flowers, small animals and green herbage of annual and perennial plants. Emus will feed on seeds from Acacia aneura [mulga] until it rains; after rainfall they eat fresh grass shoots and caterpillars; and during the winter, they feed on leaves and pods of Cassia; while in spring, emus feed on grasshoppers and fruits. Since emus feed on seeds, they are an important agent for the dispersal of large viable seeds, which contribute to floral diversity.
They are also relevant as egg producers and could be more so if farmed in larger operations.
Emus respond very well to having access to water, water that allows them to swim and bathe.
Speculatively, emus might well prove a relevant protean producer along with other 'poultry' and fish in an 'insect cum worm farming' operation. Especially so if the insects/worms were a part of an 'urban waste management strategy' – where insects/worms/maggots/pupae are fed to emu for meat. They are also relevant as egg producers and could be more so if farmed in larger operations – but their eggs are expensive relative to chicken eggs.
Emus are not very difficult to take care of given that they are highly adjustable. Moreover, they easy on the land compared with all the hard hoofed ruminant animals farmed and they respond to human interactions well. They can adapt to varied climatic and agricultural conditions. Because of their adaptive and adjustable nature emu have proven to be relatively easy to manage.
They are being processed in Victoria currently where approx. 5,000 birds are being processed annually.
However, these things are not the only factors that needs to be taken care of – such as health conditions. Emu birds get affected by various diseases such as coccidiosis, lice, rhinitis aspergillosis, ascarid infestations, candidiasis, and salmonella.
Acknowledgements
The images and text here has been gleaned and assembled by Tanrda Vale et al in the cause of providing a critical discourse and reference points. By and large the 'gleaning' has been done via the Internet and 'Social Media'.
The information here does not purport to be 'the authority' in any way and given that readers can now undertake their own gleaning and should they wish to take issue with the information presented please eMAIL Tandra Vale: zingHOUSE@bigpond.com OR comment below.
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