It's a topic that has captured the hearts and minds of internet users all over the globe: How did the Australian Army lose a war to a bunch of flightless birds? But the
The soldier-settlers found that rifles were far more effective deterrents, and 284,704 birds were killed in Western Australia between 1945 and 1960. Despite those casualties, it's safe to say that the Aussies lost the Great Emu War.
Answer and Explanation: No people died during the Emu War because it wasn't actually a war. The Emu War refers to an attempt to control the emu (a large flightless bird) population in Australia because they were damaging crops.
The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month.”
Had the Emus not delivered the Aussies such a humiliating defeat, Australia would likely be the world dominant superpower. Foster's would be the most common drink in the world, and after defeating the Emus, they would have begun a Cold War with the drop bears.
Australia's history is different from that of many other nations in that since the first coming of the Europeans and their dispossession of the Aboriginals, Australia has not experienced a subsequent invasion; no war has since been fought on Australian soil. Yet Australians have fought in ten wars.
Here is a sentence that is at once absurd and unsurprising: in 1932, Australia declared war on emus. It sounds like a joke, but the Great Emu War of Western Australia was real. Soldiers with machine guns were deployed to fight off the flightless birds.
Worse still, their tough feathers and blind panic made them virtually immune to bullets – in fact, it took, on average, more than 10 bullets for each kill. “If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world…
The emu was a valuable source of food for the Aboriginal people and was also used in ceremonies and medicine. Dutch explorers came across three toed tracks about 1697 in Western Australia. The name is derived from Portugese word “Ema” meaning crane or large bird.
Although a second (slightly) more successful military operation was mounted against the emus only a few days after the initial retreat in November 1932, in the end it was the instituting of a bounty on emus that proved most effective. Between 1945 and 1960 around 284,700 emus were killed in WA.
Its casualties from enemy action during the war were 27,073 killed and 23,477 wounded. Many more suffered from tropical disease, hunger, and harsh conditions in captivity; of the 21,467 Australian prisoners taken by the Japanese, only 14,000 survived.
“They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks.” By the end of the month, some 2,500 rounds of ammunition had been fired, and estimates of emu casualties ranged from less than 50 to as many as 500.
The Roll of Honour records the number of Australian deaths during the First World War as 61,514. This includes deaths until the formal disbandment of the AIF on 31 March 1921. During the period 4 August 1914 to 11 November 1918, there were 59,357 deaths.
That lasted until December, at which point Meredith and his men were forced to admit defeat and retreat: the Australian army had been defeated by emus. They had used nearly all 10,000 rounds of ammunition, but at the cost of 10 rounds per emu killed.
The Emu War, also known as the Great Emu War, was a nuisance wildlife management military operation undertaken in Australia over the later part of 1932 to address public concern over the number of emus said to be destroying crops in the Campion district within the Wheatbelt of Western Australia.
This offensive was abandoned following the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway in May and June 1942, and all subsequent Japanese operations in the vicinity of Australia were undertaken to slow the advance of Allied forces.
It was always eaten by aboriginal Australians, for whom the succulent tail, roasted in a pitful of embers, is a particular delicacy. The early European settlers ate kangaroo out of necessity, and many eventually came to enjoy a red meat that didn't really taste so different from venison, hare or beef.
The Kangaroo has been historically a staple source of protein for some indigenous Australians. Kangaroo meat is very high in protein and very low in fat (about 2%). Kangaroo meat has a very high concentration of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) when compared with other foods.
On the eve of British settlement/invasion, key foods of animal origin included kangaroo and wallaby, possum and wombat, muttonbird and penguins (both the flesh and the eggs) and various molluscs and crustacea.
Emus are very fast, but not faster than kangaroos.
Emus can run at 50km per hour, which is faster than Usain Bolt, the fastest man. But contrary to popular myth, they are not faster than Eastern Grey Kangaroos – who can reach a top speed of 71km per hour. Read more about the speed of Eastern Grey Kangaroos here.
Adult emus are relatively free of predation, dingoes or wedge-tailed eagles are their only natural predators. Emus have also been hunted by humans for generations.
An emu raised by humans will naturally be more friendly and docile. If you want a friendlier bird, buy a male emu: they are known to be a bit tamer than females. If you hatch baby emus, they will imprint on you and follow you around like ducklings. You can raise very young baby emus inside your house.
Dromornis planei was a massive bird with a formidable bill. It belonged to a uniquely Australian family of extinct flightless birds, the dromornithids (mihirungs). Because of the close relationship between mihirungs and ducks, Dromornis planei has been nicknamed the 'Demon Duck of Doom'.
The bush stone-curlew is probably heard more than it is seen. Its call sounds like a wail or a scream in the night. When scared, it screeches – a sound similar to the screech of a possum.
The emu has the reputation of being one of the least intelligent birds among a few emu experts, including a Canadian scientist and a former emu breeder. They aren't as bright as crows but are more so than turkeys, and yet they can be easily fooled.