James Baquet

Wildlife can be cute, but it can also be destructive, especially when human activities encroach on an animal’s habitat.

Take the emu, a large, flightless bird indigenous to Australia, for example. The world’s second-largest bird — after the ostrich — it can reach up to 1.9 meters (six feet three inches) tall and weigh up to 60 kilograms, as big as a human. Though flightless, the emus are able to run up to 48 kilometers per hour, a trait that will feature in our story.

Aside from their natural diets, the emu will eat wheat, fruit and other agricultural products. A by-product of their eating habits is more destructive: Through defecation, they will spread the seeds of whatever they eat. This happened with the prickly pear, a kind of cactus. The pesky plants were choking out legitimate crops.

And so, in 1932, the Australian Government approved the plan of a group of farmers in the western part of the country to have regular army troops use machine guns to hunt down some 20,000 of the birds.

The results were not inspiring. The birds were fast and canny. When the three-man force tried mounting the guns on a truck to chase the emus down, the birds outran the truck. They could keep moving even after being struck by several bullets. After six days, the men had expended 2,500 rounds of ammunition, and, though estimates of dead birds ranged from 50 to 500, the final count seems to have been about 300. The first assault was called off, partly due to negative PR.

But the birds’ depredations continued, so less than a week later, a second assault was attempted. About 40 emus were killed in the first two days, and the body count eventually went up to about 100 per week. The commander’s final report claimed 986 kills by 9,860 rounds — exactly 10 rounds per dead bird. The commander also claimed that wounded birds dying later would take the count up to around 2,500.

Despite the campaign’s low return, farmers requested similar assaults in 1934, 1943 and 1948. The government turned them down. As it turns out, improved fencing was a better deterrent than all the bullets in the world.

As far as is known, there were no human casualties in the Great Emu War.

Vocabulary:

Which words above mean:

1. clever, sly

2. damage

3. discouragement

4. counting word for bullets

5. elimination of food waste

6. trespass, move beyond the proper place

7. secondary result

8. native

9. natural environment

10. troublesome