An adult emu is 170-180 cm tall and weighs some 35-40 kilos. In contrast to most animals, male and female can not be distinguished from outside, only by their voice – the male grunts, the female makes a drum-like sound.
Chicks have striped feathers and they look like wild boar piglets till the age of 2.5-3 months.
Their hairy plummage together with the fat layer below the skin is one of the best thermal insulator of nature: neither minus 20, nor plus 35 degrees centigrade disturb them – they happily stroll or run up and down.
This running may happen at a speed of 50 km/h, but even if it is an easy gallop, one single step may cover 2.5 meters. They have no wings (flightless birds), only a small, cca 15 cm short outgrowth, or stump, which is used for balancing.
They are interested in everything pickable-peckable with their beak, especially shining or long things such as shoelaces. (This really looks like a mouth-watering worm, doesn’t it?).
Naturally they are omnivorous – pick plants, seeds as well as grasshoppers, ants and worms. Of course, animals on farms are not given animal based feed, as it is an EU regulation.
Female birds can fight for a male, and they can even struggle for 4-5 hours causing serious injuries to each other. After pairing up, female birds lay the eggs (only between December and March) and they leave….male birds hatch the eggs! Cocks sit on the eggs for 52-54 days, losing about one third of their weight as they neither eat nor drink for most of that time. Females have already made off and are having fun with other cocks – this behaviour can obviously be observed in the natural environment. In farms hatching machines are used.